


Aurors, Prologue

by Twintails92



Series: Aurors [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Murder, Bad Gryffindors, Before Harry Potter was born, Blood and Violence, Bonding, Bonding ritual, Bullying, Child Abuse, Demon Blood, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friendship, Good Severus Snape, Good Slytherins, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sex, Jealousy, Magic, Minerva McGonagall Bashing, Murder, Past, Physical Abuse, Powerful Magic, Prologue, Room of Requirement, Sectumsempra (Harry Potter), Sectumsempra Scars (Harry Potter), Severus Snape as a father figure, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:27:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28003134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twintails92/pseuds/Twintails92
Summary: Orion quickly turned around to look at Blackmoore again, she was not paying the struggling boy no mind. She was studying Orion with her head tilted to one side, like she was trying to figure out a difficult puzzle. Suddenly what Peeves had said came to mind: “Don’t regret it now and don’t show fear.” When their eyes met all Orion wanted to do was to run away but he managed to calm down and stand his ground. He could feel the edge of the stage right behind him with his feet and decided to take a chance. He pushed Cyril and Septimus off the stage so they both landed on the floor below him. “Silver what are you doing!?” Zacharias shouted from below him, he had moved closer and was helping the other two. Orion ignored him and took a few steps closer towards Blackmoore that was still sitting in the chair without breaking eye contact. “Well colour me impressed. You are not running away? Are you really that fearless? Or simply stupid?” She stood up from the chair with ease paying her wounds no mind. Orion’s instinct was screaming at him to run away, but his magic was keeping him standing still. All he could do was look at Blackmoore, her eyes were like liquid gold and it seemed like they were pulling him in.
Relationships: Artemis Blackmoore/Orion Silver
Series: Aurors [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2065800
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! 
> 
> First I want to say that I haven't posted anything of my writing in close to ten years so I am extremely nervous about it. I’ve had this story in my head for a while now and in the end caved and started writing it down. I wanted to use my own characters instead of the ones we already know so well. Hopefully it’s a breath of fresh air for you readers. In the beginning I had no intension to even share it with anybody. But after I picked up the courage to share it with a friend of mine the words just started to flow out. What was just going to be a short thing turned into a long prologue to an even bigger work! My friend was also sweet enough to beta this for me, so thank you so much Emelie. This is now dedicated to you! 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy! 
> 
> #Disclamer, all the OC characters belong to me and Emelie. The rest belong to JK. Rowling. Rated Mature to be safe.

#  _1988_

##  Late night meetings

The castle was quiet this late as Orion walked through it on his Prefect rounds. He wondered even how he had gotten the badge this year. He didn't do anything special to get it, sure he did his homework on time, didn't get detention or got points taken away from his house, but still, he wondered why him. “Does this bloody castle always have to be so cold” he muttered to himself as he walked the hallway of the fifth floor looking for students out of bed. There was none, of course, Peeves often haunted this floor on late nights like these. The person to be stupid enough to go up here this late would only be stupid enough once. Orion studied the paintings as he walked along, most of them were asleep but some studied him with mild interest as he walked by. He was wearing the Prefect badge of course so none of them said anything. Then something caught his attention upon a windowsill at least two meters above him. Someone was sitting there, covered in a dark coloured blanket. “What the… who is that?” Orion was sure that it was a person and not a ghost, why would a ghost need a blanket? But how did the person get up there? He brightened the Lumos from his wand and walked closer to the person. “Hello? Students should be in bed now. It's after curfew you know?” The person turned their head to look down at him in an almost lazy way. Like they hadn’t really heard him. Orion knitted his eyebrows together in a frown. “Didn't you hear me? It's past curfew, what house are you in? I have to take points from your house for catching you. How did you even get up there? Did Peeves put you there?” Of course, it had to be Peeves, this poor student probably got jumped by him and got put up there as a joke and was now unable to get down. Orion was thinking of ways to get the person down when he suddenly heard laughter. It was airy in a sense and at the same time cold like it was the castle itself that laughed. He looked up again, it was the person. He noticed now that it was a girl, the blanket had fallen down, so he could see the general shape of her now as well as dark hair flowing down her shoulders. 

“Are you alright up there?” He was getting annoyed now, and the cold was seeping through his cloak which didn't really make matters better. The girl stopped laughing and looked at him with an amused look. Like she knew something he didn't, and it made him even more annoyed. “Yes, I am perfectly fine up here Mr Prefect. I went up here on my own accord, Peeves had nothing to do with it. Well, not this time at least” She giggled a little while she said the last part. Her voice, Orion noted sounded tired, like she hadn’t slept in a year. It was airy but at the same time cold, just like her laugh. It sounded like the castle was speaking to him through her. It sent chills down his spine. “Well, you have to go back to your dorm now, like I’ve been saying it is past curfew. What is your name? I need to put it in the report I give to the teachers after my round.” She just gave him a tired smile. “Tell me Mr Prefect, why would I give you my name when it will only bring me trouble?” Orion could swear that her eyes glinted gold somehow, but the next moment it was gone. He shook his head, she had a point of course. The younger students were easy to scare into telling him, and often they wore some sort of hint about what house they were in. But the older students where a different matter, they knew better. This girl was no exception, she wore nothing from what Orion could see that would reveal her house or age for that matter. The only thing was the blanket which he now could see was a dark green thanks to the light from the spell but anyone could own a green blanket. He coughed as he looked up at her. “Fair point I suppose… So how lucky am I by you just telling me?” She laughed again, then suddenly turned deadly quiet. She looked down the hall to her left in amusement while she looked at him and put a finger up to her lips as if to tell him to stay quiet. He was about to say something when he heard the familiar song that Peeves sang across the hallways. As if on cue Orion froze like a statue. He did not want to deal with Peeves now he was annoying enough normally, at night he became even worse. Part of being a ghost he supposed. Peeves came flying down the hall at a high speed but instead of going straight for him as Orion was expecting he simply ignored him and flew straight past him. He flew instead up to the girl on the windowsill laughing as he usually did. “Oh, Little Demon! There you are! Learned to get up here by yourself now, heh? Tell me have you seen some students walking around? That silly Professor Snape has scared all of them away from the dungeons. It is so BORING here tonight! So tell me! Seen anyone?” Peeves spun around in the air as he talked and looked at her upside down with the usual wide grin. “Hello Peeves, sorry I haven’t seen anyone come this way. Seems like Mr Prefect has scared them all away as well. Maybe try over at the Ravenclaw tower? You know they feel so smart when they manage to sneak out unnoticed. Imagine their faces when you catch them.” If she was bothered by Peeves she did not show it, and only looked at him with was could only be described as utter boredom. Like this was something that happened every night. “AHA! That is an excellent plan Little Demon, I will go over there posthaste! You should not sit for too long, would not want the little King to catch you now, would we? Toodles!” Peeves sang the last part in an annoyingly high note as he started flying towards the Ravenclaw tower, still oblivious to the fact that Orion was standing right there below him. 

“You can move again now.” Orion looked up at her with confusion evidently on his face as she started to giggle at him. “What just happened? How did he not see me? Why did he call you a little demon?” She was looking at him now with a mix of annoyance and amusement. “Seems like you are a curious type Mr Prefect” She smirked at him. “I could tell you, but only if you pretended to not see me.” He scowled back at her. This was getting ridiculous, he should be in bed by now not stand here and be ridiculed by some unknown student in the cold. He sighed and looked up at her. “Fine. It’s a deal.” She looked at him surprised but he was sure he saw a gold hint in her eyes again. “Magic of course.” She smiled at him, while Orion scowled back at her. “Magic? Really?” He said sarcastically. “Yes, you didn’t ask for specifics after all. So magic is the answer.” He was sure her eyes were glowing gold at him this time and they looked amused. He let out a huff. “Very funny… but a deal is a deal I suppose. So I’ll leave you alone.” He still thought about how she was going to get down on her own, she had said that she had gotten up there by her own accord but he was still unsure. “Answer me this then, how will you get down?” She snickered. “I did say that I got up here on my own right? Don’t worry Mr Prefect I am perfectly capable of getting down on my own as well.” He studied her for a bit, it did seem like she was telling the truth. He shook his head. “Very well Miss. I’ll be on my way. Good night.” He drew his cloak closer to himself and started to walk down the hall towards the dungeons, as he walked past the girl he could hear her saying “Good night” in a soft voice behind him. 

##  Breakfast  


The Great hall was bustling with noise from students that were arriving to sit down for breakfast the next morning. As usual, the tables were filled with everything you might desire, from the standard English breakfast staples to a wide selection of cereals. Orion picked at his eggs, he was too busy studying every student that went into the hall that morning. If he was lucky he could spot the girl that he had met the night before. Not that he had a lot to go by, he had not really seen her face in the dark. But he figured that if he at least saw someone similar he could at least make a mental note of what house they were in. “Heeeyyyyyy, Earth to Silver… Heelloooooo?” A hand was waving in front of his face. He snapped out of what he was doing a second to look to his left, Zacharias Zabini was sitting there with an amused smirk on his face. “What do you want Zacharias?” He smirked back. His friend hated it when someone called him his full name. The dark boy had said that his mother had cursed him with giving him a name that was so complicated to say. Zacharias smirk dropped from his face as he huffed. “What has gotten into you this morning King? You’ve been studying the door as if it was a fascinating potion.” Orion ignored the use of the nickname “King” he had gotten used to it by now. He looked over the table at Cyril Thompson and Septimus Zouch as they to were looking at him with curious expressions on their faces. Zabini was looking at him with a raised eyebrow expecting an answer from him. Should he tell them about what happened last night? Zabini was growing impatient by the looks of the ever-rising eyebrow. “To hell with it,” Orion thought and told them what had happened the night before with a whisper.

“So you're saying that you found a girl sitting on a windowsill?”

“Aha” 

“At least two meters up on the wall?” 

“Mhm” 

“And somehow she managed to make it so that Peeves didn't spot you?”

“Jupp” 

“And then you just left her alone?” 

“Sounded fair at the time” 

“So now you are studying everyone coming through the doors trying to find her so you can do what exa ct ly?”

“I haven’t gotten that far yet.” Orion studied his friends ’ faces, they were all looking at him with fascination and slight worry. 

Zacharias sighed. “I should have gone with you on your rounds. You have finally lost your marbles, King.” Zacharias had been his friend since the first year and looked at himself like the group’s bodyguard. The dark boy did have immense talents in Defence Against the Dark Arts and mastered the class with ease. Not that the other boys could not protect themselves or that they needed to often for that matter but Zacharias had insisted upon it. Seeing the others had mental strength someone had to take the role of the brute. “Hmm, so what have you got then? What does she look like? I can get one of my informants to look for her maybe” Septimus said. His blue eyes were shining at the challenge. If you needed to find something or someone you went to Septimus. Already from first grade, he had started building an information network within the school. He had students from every house and grade under it if Septimus wanted to know something about anyone it would usually take him less than a day to do it. Orion frowned, her looks was something he wasn’t entirely sure about. “Dark hair and she might be short? She was sitting so I don’t really know, but she looked small up there. Her voice is the most recognisable. It was cold… and airy, like the castle itself and… I swear I saw a pair of golden eyes but that must have been my imagination.” He looked at Septimus still with the frown on his face. He now realised how hard finding someone with that description was going to be and by the look on his friend's faces, they thought the same thing. “Golden eyes? Hmm… Okay, not the best description I guess. But we would know if someone like that was in Slytherin so it has to be one of the other houses.” Cyril shrugged and looked around at the different house tables. “We could also infiltrate the other houses I suppose…” On the other side of the coin there was Cyril, he was the one you went for if you needed to hide. He carried invisibility potions with him wherever he went and could make a glamour that even some of the teachers had trouble seeing through. He had many looks and many names to go by, but his auburn coloured hair and blue eyes were the real him. The four boys sat in silence for the rest of the meal while looking around the Great Hall. Orion could not spot anyone that seemed close to the person he had seen last night, was he even sure that it was real at this point? Had the round been so boring that he had dreamt it all? It didn't seem unlikely. He was brought back from his thoughts by Zabini that nudged him. “Time to head to Potions. Won't let Snape wait heh? Maybe if we are lucky we will spot your girl on the way there.” He grinned at Orion as he picked up his school bag and went towards the doors. Orion quickly followed, at least potions class could get his mind on something else for a while.

** Potion class **

Orion was surprised to see Gryffindor outside the Potions classroom, they were usually paired up with the Ravenclaws. He looked at Septimus at his left who just shrugged. Some of the Gryffindor girls were giggling and waving in their direction. “Always the popular one, hm Orion?” Cyril was giggling softly at the display. Orion was not stupid and was aware that his looks attracted attention. His white blond hair and ice blue eyes stood out among most people and he was popular with girls and boys alike. He was not as frivolous as Zabini though and kept his affairs more tasteful. That was just some of the reason he had been crowned the King of Slytherin back in the third year. Orion had stood up against some older students who were being an eyesore to the Slytherin house and together with his friends they had managed to teach them a lesson. From then on he was known as the King and respected throughout the school, even the other houses had started to call him King. His close friends had also gotten similar nicknames, Zabini was the “Queen”, Cyril was the “Jack” and Septimus had become the “Ace”. It had annoyed Orion to no end in the beginning but as the years had gone by it had become a habit so now even the friends themselves used their nicknames with each other. When he saw who had waved at him from across the hall he had to try his best to hide his disgust. Vanessa Burns. Self-crowned Queen of Gryffindor. How she had ended up in that house in the first place was beyond him, she was the vilest person he knew. And he was the King of the vile house itself. There were rumours going around that she was bullying the younger students into doing her bidding but if it was true or not Orion did not know. He gave her a polite nod in return, this was going to be a long class.

Finally, Professor Snape opened the doors to the classroom and motioned for them to enter and sit down. Orion and Zabini took a seat in the middle far left, with Cyril and Septimus in front of them. Septimus leaned back on his chair and whispered: “Seems like Snape is even more annoyed today than usual.” Snape walked stiffly up to his desk and waited for them all to sit down. After everyone was seated did he speak up. “There has been a mishap in this month lesson plan it seems so as of today the Gryffindor will be having potions with Slytherin instead of the Ravenclaws. Therefore the assignment that you all got last week as been nullified seeing as you cannot finish them with the current partner setup.” That explained why the Professor looked annoyed when something didn’t go his way it always got him into a fouler mood than usual. He was looking around the classroom as he spoke. Orion could swear his eyes lingered a little longer on something behind him but didn’t dare turn around at that moment in fear of being on the other end of his wrath. Snape let out an annoyed sigh, as he continued. “Seeing as I did not get notified before the last minute I have not have time to put you into new groups therefore you will be working alone today. Therefore you will be making the Wound-Cleaning Potion today. Should be simple enough for the most of you. Now, begin!” The chalkboard behind Snape turned around with the ingredients list already written down on it and students started to write down what they needed from the cupboard. “How boring…” Zabini mumbled next to him. Then he suddenly poked Orion on the shoulder. “Hey… a Gryffindor is sitting behind us… that’s a first.” Orion looked behind him in confusion. It really was the first time someone other than a Slytherin had sat down behind them. What was more surprising was that it was a girl even. Orion studied her in the corner of her eye, her shoulder-length dark hair was loose and hanging over her face. Her eyes were a dark chocolate brown and it looked like she hadn’t slept the night before. He also noted that her hands were full of band-aids and he could make out what looked like bandages over both her wrists under the cuffs of her shirt. There was something off about this girl and it was gnawing at him for some reason. “Oh wow there is a Gryffindor sitting here today, what a surprise!” Cyril was standing next to their desk with ingredients in hand. The girl flinched slightly and looked up at him. “Ah… I… I can move if I am in the way.” Orion froze in his chair, that voice. There was no mistaking it, it was the same voice he had heard last night. Cyril frowned slightly. “Whatever for? It was just unusual. That is all. Ah, and we are being rude to you as well. I am Cyril Thompson, you probably know me as the “Jack” of Slytherin house.” He smiled sweetly at her, always the girl charmer Orion thought. Septimus stepped up next to him then. “Oh, it is a Gryffindor! Hello, I am Septimus Zouch, the “Ace” of Slytherin.” He put his ingredients down next to his cauldron. “This guy is Zacharias Zabini aka the “Queen” better not touch him though, there is a high chance he could get you pregnant.” That got him a hit on the shoulder from Zabini while he laughed. Orion took a breath and turned around again. “I am Orion Silver. The “King” of Slytherin. Nice meeting you, and you are?” She looked at them like they all had grown multiple heads each. After a few seconds, Cyril looked at her concerned. “Miss? Everything alright?” “Ah! I… I’m sorry, I am Artemis Blackmoore. A pleasure to meet you all. You just took me by surprise by introducing yourselves to me that is all. I guess Slytherins aren’t as bad as they say. Ah sorry!” She flushed a little and looked at them apologetically. Septimus laughed. “Yeah, we are polite when we want to be you know! Nice meeting you Miss Blackmoore. Let’s have a good classroom relationship from now on heh?” He reached out his hand for her to shake and smiled at her. She stared at his hand for a long time until she eventually took it and smiled back at him. Orion was sure now, it was the same voice from yesterday. So this was the girl that had somehow had gotten up on that windowsill. “Right, well it has been a pleasure talking to you but we should get started on the potion…” Artemis gave them all a polite nod as she struggled to get out of her chair. It was evident that she was wounded somewhere when she winced slightly when she got to a standing position. Neither of the boys commented on it as they stepped out of the way for her. Cyril looked at Orion with a frown and he leaned over his shoulder to whisper to him. “Sorry King but did you see the bandages on her writs? The way she got up too... could this be signs of abuse?” Orion shook his head saying he did not know. “Let’s just get the potions started for now.” Cyril nodded and went back to his cauldron next to Septimus. 

Orion went over to the storage room to find what he needed. It was a simple enough potion to make, even if it was in the advanced section of the book. Orion didn't understand why Snape had picked this potion in particular but then again it might have been the first potion that popped into the Potions Master’s head when he had learned that the project they were supposed to do wasn’t happening. It mattered little to Orion if they made this or something else. It was at least a helpful potion to have lying around the dorm in case something happened. Going all the way to the Hospital Wing from the dungeons could be a pain. Especially for something so little as a scrape or cut that could be easily healed. Artemis was still in there trying to reach something on one of the higher shelves. Now that they were both standing Orion noted that he had been right in the fact that she was short. At least a head shorter than himself, probably even more. But then again he was one of the taller boys in his year so this didn't really surprise him. He looked upon the shelf that she was trying to reach and wondered why she just didn't use magic. It would be easy enough just to levitate that jar down. Maybe she was a muggleborn and didn’t really think about it? It wasn’t unlikely, he had heard of the muggleborn sometimes forgetting that there was magic that could solve problems like this. Without thinking more about it he stood behind her and reached for the jar and held it up in front of her face. “This is it right?” He had said it in a teasing tone which he could not help. He was a Slytherin after all. She took the jar from him and turned around quickly. “Y… yes thank you Ki— Mr Silver” He didn’t comment on the nickname almost slipping out and simply grinned. “No problem, you could just have levitated it down you know? You are a witch aren’t you?” She mumbled something under her breath that he didn’t catch then quickly looked up at him. “Well if I did that then you tall boys would never save a damsel in distress would you now?” She raised her eyebrow while she grinned at him. “Maybe I simply let you take it down for me so you could show off some of that manliness. Or maybe I was testing to see if the King of Slytherin is the perfect gentleman that everyone keeps saying.” Her eyes were full of mischief now, they were challenging him. He also noted that she had not stepped away from him and was still standing right in front of him back turned to the shelves. Yes, definitely a challenge.

Before he got to say anything else however the sound of someone clearing their throat filled the storage room. Orion looked towards the entrance and tried his best not to scowl. Vanessa Burns was standing in the door looking at them with an indescribable expression on her face. “Oh my! I am not interrupting something am I?” Her voice was sickly sweet, like thick syrup on a pancake at breakfast. It made him sick. He took a step away from Artemis as he smiled sweetly back at Burns. “Oh no of course not, simply chatting about ingredients to use right Blackmoore?” Artemis didn’t answer him and simply stared at Burns with a look that screamed of fear. It was like she had been caught stealing from Gringotts with the evidence clearly in her hands. Orion was about to ask her if something was wrong when she simply ran past Burns and back into the classroom. “My word! This rude girl!” Burns frowned while she was looking in Artemis direction. “I have to apologise for Artemis sake my King. She can be quite rude at times. I hope she didn’t insult you in any way?” There it was again, that sickly sweet voice. Orion hated it more for every word that came out of the woman’s mouth. “No, not at all, if you’ll excuse me I have to get back to my seat” Before he moved he simply Accioed everything he needed then put up his best full-blood smile and walked past her to the classroom. He looked for Artemis and saw her back at her desk, already working on her potion. Cyril was looking at him with a question on his face. He walked over to them casually while casting a wandless Muffliato.“ Ace, dig up some info on Vanessa Burns, there is something not right here.” Septimus turned around in his chair to look at Orion as he sat down. “So you think it’s abuse after all?” Orion nodded. “When Burns came into the storage room she looked terrified. The Gryffindors are hiding something, look around you. They are all clustered together, Blackmoore is the only one sitting on this side of the classroom. It’s like they are keeping their distance.” Septimus took a sweep of the classroom. “You are right… She would rather be in the snake pit then the lions’ den…” Cyril noted. The boys studied their surroundings while they worked on the potions making mental notes about how the Gryffindors behaved. Snape walked rounds around the classroom as per usual. He went passed the Slytherin boys and stopped at Artemis’s table. Orion had his ears peeled for what was being said just in case. “Miss Blackmoore, good job as always. Good to see at least one Gryffindor are not completely incompetent.” Orion peeked over his shoulder at her potion curiously, it did indeed look like it was the perfect colour. He noticed that Snape was frowning at something none the less. “Miss Blackmoore what did you do to your hands this time? Clumsiness only goes so far…” So the Professor had noticed, and from what it sounded this wasn’t the first time she had come to class this way. “Oh… um… I… I was helping a friend in the greenhouse sir, you know some of those plants can be vicious.” Something caught Orion’s eye then. Burns was looking directly at Artemis while she was talking to Snape, she was casually waving her wand in front of her face. He reached in front of him and touched Cyril on the shoulder when the boy turned around he simply motioned over to Burns. Cyril looked over with the corner of his eye and frowned, he then whispered something in Septimus’s ear. Zacharias had also noticed as he tapped two fingers on the desk, a sign they had that meant that he understood the situation. Snape clicked his tongue and went to the next desk after the answer he had gotten.

After he had gotten to the other side of the room and was occupied with someone else Zacharias turned around and smiled at Artemis. “That must be the first time I’ve heard anyone get a compliment from Snape, you a potion genius or something? What grade are ya getting?” Artemis was blushing and didn’t answer. Zacharias grinned wide. “Aww, she is blushing! Look, King! The Gryffindor is blushing!” Orion just looked at Zacharias with a glint in his eye, time to put on a show. He sighed loudly. “Zacharias don’t be rude to the girl. You have no business about her grade. Especially when you yourself are failing miserably.” He heard Artemis chuckling softly behind him. “Hey! I am not failing! I am getting an Acceptable you know.” Orion smirked. “Aha, so a Dreadful then? You know maybe if you ask nicely Miss Blackmoore can tutor you, hm? Imagine, asking a Gryffindor for help. You are supposed to be the “Queen” of Slytherin you know.” Orion tried his best not to laugh at Zacharias’s face. They had played this game many times over their seven years in school and it was always too much fun not to tease Zacharias when Orion got the chance. Besides if Zacharias got insulted for real, it made for a much better performance. He heard laughter behind him and looked over his shoulder. Artemis was trying hard not to laugh out loud but some sound was escaping anyway. It was like it was a different person laughing compared to the night before. This laugh was more bubbly and easily contagious, he couldn’t help himself and started to laugh himself. “It’s not that funny...” Zacharias mumbled next to him but Orion saw that he had a glint of humour in his eye. “It seems the Lady found the thought of teaching you to humorous it seems Zacharias. You better try harder hm?” Zacharias just rolled his eyes. Orion turned to Artemis that had stopped laughing.“ I am sorry for my companion’s behaviour, sometimes he has a hard time remembering his manners. A horrible trait for a Full blood really. It’s good he has his looks or he would not be as popular as he is.” He patted Zacharias on the shoulder to try and raise a reaction but all he got this time was a huff. He smiled at Artemis that smiled back at him. He looked at her potion: it was a clear purple and looked to be the correct consistency. “But I have to agree with him, it is impressive to get a compliment from Snape. Your potion looks excellently made. Congratulations.” She was blushing again at the compliment and shook her head. “Thank you, Mr Silver. But I am not even near your level in potions. I know you are one of the best on the subjects in the school. So a compliment from you means a lot as well. So thank you again. Oh and Mr Zabini?” Zacharias turned around confused at the mention of his name. “Huh? Yes?” Artemis smiled at him. “My grade is E and I don’t think I have the time to tutor you I am afraid, but seeing as one of your friends is the best one in the class you should probably ask him nicely hm?” For the first time in his life he got to see Zacharias speechless, he just sat there blinking owlishly at her until snapping out of it and turning around while mumbling something incoherent. The sight sent Orion over the edge and he could not control his laughter anymore. The whole class was turning over to look at him and wondering what happened. Snape frowned at him. “Mr Silver, what could possibly so funny? Quiet down please.” Orion was trying to catch his breath. “I… I’m sorry, Sir. I’ll be quiet Sir.” He was still snickering but Snape must have accepted it since he didn’t comment more on it. 

A loud explosion was suddenly sett off from the other side of the room. Orion looked up quickly to take a look at who it was that had blown their cauldron up and then grinned when he saw who it was. Seems like Burns didn’t really have any talent in potions. Snape was over there in the blink of an eye and vanished the content of the cauldron. He did not look surprised, so this seemed to be a recurring thing. “Miss Burns… Care to tell me how you managed to make this into a disaster this time? Who are at fault this time? A ghost perhaps?” His eyebrow was raised and he was not amused in the slightest. The whole class was looking at them holding their breath to what she had to say. “Professor Snape, I swear I was doing everything correctly! I was following the book exactly as it says, Sir! Here, look!” She turned his book to him in a desperate attempt to redeem herself. Snape looked even more disappointed if that even was possible and sighed. “Miss Burns,…you do have eyes do you not? This” He pointed to the book. “Is not the right page.” She looked panic-stricken, then her eyes turned hard as stone and looked straight at where Artemis stood. Orion looked over at Artemis, she stood still like a statue and just stared in front of her. She did not confirm or deny what was being said against her. He frowned at Burns. “Sorry Miss Burns but I can assure you that Miss Blackmoore has been at her desk the entire time during class. You must simply have turned the page at one point and not turned it back again.” Snape watched the exchange between the two students in silence. The air in the classroom was so thick you would have to use a cutting charm to get through it. Orion was looking at Burns with disdain, this really did confirm his suspicions. Blackmoore really was a target for Burns bullying it seemed, why she would put blame on her when she herself was on the other side of the classroom was totally ridiculous in Orion’s mind. In the end, Snape let out an annoyed huff. “10 points from Gryffindor for yet again, ruining a cauldron. I will tell your Head of House about this Miss Burns. Again. Everyone else sample your potions and give them at the front, you are free to go after that.” Snape turned around and returned to sit at his desk waiting for everyone to deliver their potions. Orion started to bottle up his own when he heard some Gryffindors whispering as they walked by him, “Blackmoore is never gonna get away with this right? Vanessa will have her head this time as well. I almost feel sorry for the girl at this point” “Shhhhh! Do you want Vanessa to hear you? She will get you to you know!” He didn’t hear any more than that, but that was all he really needed to hear. His magic felt like it was going to burst through his core and blood was boiling in his veins. He was wondering why he was reacting so strongly to this, strictly speaking, he didn’t even know Blackmoore. Of course, bullying was struck hard upon in the Slytherin house, he was strongly against it. But that was his own house and people he got to know. Blackmoore was a stranger. Zabini put his hand on his shoulder, he had heard the whispering himself. “Your magic is crackling around you Orion, calm down a bit, take a breath yeah?” Orion took a deep breath and calmed down slightly. Cyril was looking at him with worrying eyes. “It’s not like you to react like this King.” Orion shook his head. “Don’t look at me like that. You are just as worried yourself. I can tell Jack.” Cyril just scowled at him. 

The classroom was emptying now as people were delivering their potions to Snape’s desk. Artemis walked passed them then and placed her potion vial on the Professors desk carefully. He studied it carefully then nodded. Surprisingly he gave her the vial back and told her something that the boys could not hear, she nodded and turned around to leave. As she passed the boys she smiled to them and left without saying anything. “Are you four just going to stand there or are you going to give me your finished products to grade?” Snape was looking at them with annoyance as he had looked all day. The cauldron blowing up didn’t seem to help his mood. “Sorry Professor, right away.” Septimus took their vials and placed them on the teacher’s desk with a smile. Snape only grunted and studied the potions in front of him. “They all look fine, you are dismissed.” He waved his hand at them all. Orion bit his lip in frustration, he wondered if Snape knew something about Blackmoore’s situation. This was the perfect time to ask him seeing it was a little while to their next class. He motioned to his friends to go ahead of him, they all nodded in understanding and left. Orion walked over to were Snape was seated. “Professor? I have a question, Sir.” Snape looked up at him with little interest. “What can I help you with Mr Silver?” Orion took a deep breath. “Sir, are you aware that Miss Blackmoore is most likely getting bullied by Miss Burns?” Snape’s face did not show any emotions so if he was surprised he did not show it. He simply leaned back in his chair and studied him.” That is a serious accusation, Mr Silver. Do you have any proof of this?” “The bandages on her fingers and on her wrists Sir, they are clear abuse signs and she seemed downright terrified of Burns. Plus the fact that Burns was quick to try and put the blame on Miss Blackmoore and all the rumours of Burns...” Snape held up his hand in the air to stop him. “I am sorry Mr Silver but this is not proof. Miss Blackmoore is a clumsy girl, she gets cuts and scrapes all the time. Believe me, this is not the first time she looks like that. Now if she looked “Terrified” of not I do not know but that of is own is probably you just making a mistake. Lastly, the rumours you are referring to are certainly fake, Miss Burns is not doing any of the sorts. I have personally asked Professor McGonagall of this myself and she has denied all the rumours. So, Mr Silver, I can assure you that nothing is going on of that sort of nature.” He looked at Orion with a strict look. It was no use to discuss with the Professor on the matter. “However, if you were to find evidence of a student being bullied please come to me with it and I will take it to the Headmaster.” Orion looked at his teacher puzzled before he understood. Snape was telling him what he knew of the matter, not necessarily that what Orion said was wrong. This was Hogwarts after all and the walls had ears. He nodded. “Understood Sir. I apologise for accusing someone without evidence. I’ll take my leave.” He turned around and walked out of the classroom. His friends were waiting outside patiently. “So? What did he say?” Orion ignored Zabini’s question and looked at Septimus. “Ace I need you to get your network to dig up information on Burns and Blackmoore. Snape more or less confirmed that something is amiss in his own way.” Septimus nodded. “I’m on it.” He waved them goodbye and walked towards the stairs that led out of the dungeons. They still had time before their next class and Orion decided to go back to the common room and think. Thoughts of what had happened in class and the night before were swimming in his head and he could feel a headache coming. 

##  Divination

Orion was sitting in the back of the divination classroom and thankful that the class was close to ending, Professor Trelaweny was teaching the students about tea leaves readings for what felt like the 20th time this week alone. On the count that the Runes study was to full some students had been forced to take Divination instead, sadly Orion was one of them. Zabini had been laughing all the way down the hall after they split their ways on the day the classes had been set. After some classes and getting used to Trelawney’s ramblings the class itself was fascinating in its own right, not that he was ever going to let anyone know that. “Well, the class is sadly over dearies! I will see you all next week and remember to practise tea leaves readings for next time!” Professor Trelawney was looking at all the students and waving goodbye to each of them as they passed her out the door as she usually did. As Orion was passing the Professor he was suddenly stopped by her grabbing his shoulder tightly and turning him towards her. “A monster is calling for help in the dark! Blood will be spilled if nothing is done to help the creature to the light. It will rip and tear through flesh if it does not find its way back home! It needs light!” Trelawney’s eyes were unusually big behind her glasses and her voice didn’t sound like it belonged to her at all. She was gripping his shoulder tightly, but as soon as she was done speaking she let go and stood there looking at him confused. “Oh hello, Mr Silver! Did you need something?” Orion quickly replaced his surprised expression with a neutral one and shook his head. “No Professor I was just saying goodbye, thank you for an interesting class.” She gave him a big smile and waved him out the door. “Oh thank you dear! See you next week”. He nodded as a response and went out the door. The second the door was closed his mind started to go into overdrive. That was clearly a prediction of some kind, but what did it mean? What monster would need help to get out of the dark? Suddenly the memory of Peeves calling Blackmoore the “Little Demon” came popping into his head. Could it be? Did Trelawney really mean Blackmoore? He looked at his clock, it was almost time for dinner. If something were to happen before a meal nobody would find her for maybe hours and if they were too late. But where should he even start to look? Finding somewhere dark at Hogwarts was not hard, the hard part was finding the correct spot. Then again there was no telling when this prophecy was even happening, it could happen in a few minutes or a few months. That was always the hard part about fortune telling, time was irrelevant. Orion set off in a full sprint down the stairs of the tower, he needed to find his friends and tell them of what had happened. Hopefully, Septimus had some information to share at dinner. 

When he entered he quickly scanned the Gryffindor table, there we no sign of Blackmoore anywhere. Burns and her normal posse of girls were also nowhere to be seen. “Shit.” He walked quickly over to his own table and spotted Zabini right away. “Hey mate what took you so long? Why are you breathing so hard, did you run all the way here?” Zabini looked at him like he had grown another head. “Listen something might be happening soon.” Orion told what Trewlaney had told him on the way out of the classroom after sitting down. “Bloody hell… yeah we need to find them. Thompson and Zouch should be coming shortly I hope.” He looked over to the door, and as like it was commanded both boys walked in. “Perfect timing” Orion waved at them to come to the table and sit down. “Hey, King what is going on you are all out of breath?” Cyril tilted his head to the side with a confused look. Orion quickly explained what was happening. “Hmm yeah that is a pickle… I’ll get some of my errand boys to run around asking questions.” Septimus looked down the table and waved at a second-year sitting further down the table. The boy quickly got out of his seat and ran over. “You wanted to see me, Ace?” The boy stood with big round eyes patiently waiting for his task. “Yes, you need to ask around after a girl that is missing. Ask the Gryffindors especially. Her name is Blackmoore. Take some of the other guys with you. You have until dinner is done. Got it?” The boys nodded so hard that his head almost seemed to fall off. “Got it!” He ran back to were he was sitting previously and talked to a group of boys sitting around. They all got up, while some ran out of the hall some ran over to the Gryffindor table and started asking around. Septimus took out his wand and cast a Muffliato, you never knew who could be listening in on them. “Right so I found out some rather chilling stuff about Burns. Seems the rumours about her are indeed true. The whole house is her little made-up kingdom it seems. The younger students are scared into doing her bidding by threats of being beaten up or thrown out of school for crimes they did not do. Of course, Burns doesn’t do this herself so her hands are kept clean. The one doing the dirty work is none other than Samuel MacCasfield, the Gryffindor quidditch teams beater. Fitting, in a macabre way. ”Orion had some meetings with MacCasfield in the past. He looked to the Slytherin house as his personal enemies and played especially rough against them on the field. He had sent Slytherin players to the hospital wing on more than one occasion. “Why is no one doing anything? Someone must have reported this to a teacher!” Septimus looked over to the teacher's table and leaned closer to the others. 

“Well… That is where Blackmoore comes in. She reported to Professor McGonagall on what was happening but she ignored her. Saying she was lying and just gave her detention for spreading false rumours. Burns is now making her pay for it. According to some of the students that were questioned she is beaten regularly but she never fights back.” The boys looked at Septimus in shock. “She just takes it? Whatever for?” Cyril stabbed his potatoes with his fork in frustration. Septimus looked defeated for a second. “Nobody knows why. But some of my boys found out that she is rarely seen using magic outside of classes. She does everything by hand it seems. Something that is weird even for a muggleborn.” Orion thought back to when he had seen her try and take down the jar from the high shelf without magic. “It also seems that we were correct that they are all ignoring her, some even seems scared of her.” Septimus continued. “The weird thing is that none could answer why they were scared of her, a lot doesn’t make sense with this girl it seems.” Zacharias held up his hand like a student waiting his turn to say something, Septimus looked at him. “Backtrack a bit there Ace. You said that McGonagall had just given her detention for spreading false rumours? Why on earth did she not do something? I mean if we went to Snape with all that info he would surely crackdown on it immediately. Any teacher would I believe.” He looked confused at his friends. Septimus sighed. “Apparently Burns father works high up in the Ministry. So he must have some sort of power of the Gryffindor Head of House.” Orion’s glass of water suddenly shattered in front of him. The other boys jumped in surprise and looked at Orion. Cyril patted his shoulder while he took out his wand and cast a quick Reparo _._ The glass started to put itself back together again quickly and a mug floated over to it and filled it with water again. Orion breathed deeply through his nose while he looked up at the teachers’ table. His eyes met Professor Snape that looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Orion shook his head and looked back at his friends. Cyril handed him the glass of water without saying a word. After finishing it he placed it carefully down on the table and took another deep breath. “I’m fine.” None of the other boys questioned it even though they all knew that he clearly wasn’t. Just then the boys that Septimus had sent out came running towards them, one of them stopped in front of them breathing hard. “A… Ace… We… we” He took a deep breath. “We found something! Some Hufflepuff kids said that they saw a group of Gryffindors go up to the sixth floor right before dinner. But they don’t know what they are doing up there though.” Another boy stepped up then. “They said that it looked like one of the girls they had with them didn’t want to go with them! There was this huge boy with them too!” Orion clenched his fists, that had to be them. Septimus smiled at the boys. “Good work guys as always, we will take it from here.” The younger boys smiled wide at the praise they received and stat down at the table to eat something before dinner was over. Septimus looked at Orion. “Alright, so what is the plan?”. Orion stood up from his seat and looked at all of his friends in turn. “We are going. Now.” He calmly left the table like everything was normal but when he was far enough away from the big doors he started a full sprint towards the moving staircase. He could hear is friends running behind him as he came to a halt on the stairs. This was one time that he hated the fact that they moved on their own accord. None of the stairs lined up as they should and it felt like it took forever to get to the sixth floor. 

Orion’s stomach was in knots when they finally reached that landing to the sixth floor. The problem now was to know where to begin. Suddenly he heard the familiar cackling of Peeves down the hall. “What is Peeves doing up here at this hour?” Septimus questioned. “I don’t know but that might be a clue. Let’s carefully approach him.” Orion motioned the others to follow behind him if they ended up in trouble the last in line would have time to run for it. He peeked around the first corner, empty. But Peeves horrible singing could be heard even louder than before so he had to be around the next corner at the end of the hallway. They quietly walked further down the hall when suddenly Peeves showed up right in front of Orion’s face making him stumble into Cyril that was right behind him. The ghost cackled in delight. “Oh lookie here! A royal party of snakes are Slytherin around!” He laughed maniacally at his own joke while spinning around in the air. “Let me guess you are looking for a little pretty demon riiiiiight?” He dragged out the last word knowingly. How the ghost knew that they were looking for Blackmoore was beyond Orion but he didn’t care. He stood up straight and looked directly at the grinning ghost. “So what if we are? Have you seen her?” Peeves grinned even wider if that was possible and started laughing again. “Hmmm have I? Maybe I haven’t! Oh, but maybe I don’t even know who it is you are looking for. I have been dead for so long my memory slips all the time.” Orion frowned, he didn’t have time for the ghost’s antics. “So if I went to get the Baron to ask you then you wouldn’t know then?” He grinned at him. Peeves face fell into a sombre one right away with the mention of the Baron. “Hmph! Rude boy, no need to get the old Baron up here.. Fine! I have seen her. But do you really want to find her? You might regret it.” Peeves were smirking at him with a knowing smile. “Spit it out Peeves,” Orion said between gritted teeth. The ghost did a few spins in the air and simply started to float down the hall beckoning them to follow him. They followed Peeves down a few more hallways, at this point Orion was unsure of where they even were anymore. Hopefully, Peeves was leading them in the right direction and not just taking them for a ride. The thought had barely crossed his mind before Peeves stopped in mid air and pointed to a tapestry at the end of the hall. It was a dead end. His eyebrows knitted together in frustration. “Peeves what is the meaning of this?” The ghost didn’t answer and put his hand over his mouth to show them they had to be quiet. Slowly he floated towards the tapestry and ever so slightly moved it. Orion could just make out a door behind the tapestry as it moved. Of course, a hidden room. Peeves floated silently over so he was right next to Orion’s head and whispered in his ear. “Don’t regret it now and don’t show fear.” Orion was about to ask Peeves what he meant by it but the ghost had already vanished.


	2. Prologue Part 2

##  Dead End

Orion gave a sign to be quiet as they moved closer to the door behind the tapestry. Zacharias put his ear on the door and nodded. He took a step back while taking his wand out of his cloak and motioned to the others to move then cast a Listen-In spell on the door. The voices now could be heard loud and clear from the other side. “Who told you it was okay to talk to the Royals in such a friendly matter eh? Why were all standing so close to you even!”. “I bet she cursed the King somehow! That is the only explanation for him to suddenly take interest in such a lowlife like you, you monster.” A loud gasp could be heard. “Oh my God, what if she used an Unforgivable on him?!” A harsh laugh. “Nonsense! This idiot can’t even cast a simple Lumos without exploding something. She clearly drugged him with a potion.” “Tell us what you did you sorry excuse of a human! Or there will be consequences for you. Want another beating maybe?” There was silence for a few seconds. “Heh… not going to scream today hm? You know nobody can hear you anyway. No need to be stubborn.” Snickering. 

Orion was about to blast the damn thing open but got stopped by Zacharias grabbing his shoulders. “We need to know how many there are first” He whispered. Orion willed himself to calm down and listen more closely to the voices. They had heard three women and one man so far. So at least four people where in the room, but there could be more. One of the female voices was clearly Vanessa Burns, that sickly sweet voice was easy to recognise. If he were to take a guess the man’s voice should belong to Samuel MacCasfield. He looked at Zacharias, “Do you know the Homenum Revelio charm?”. Zacharias grinned, “Of course I know that, how else would I know how many men my mother has over every night?”. Cyril rolled his eyes. “Focus Zabini!”. “Yes yes,” He pointed his wand at the door again and cast the charm, after a short moment blue lines formed in human shapes could be seen through the door. “Seems to be six of them… that makes us on the losing side in numbers” Septimus whispered. “King what do we do? Should one of us run for reinforcements?” His friends was looking at him for the next move. Orion was unsure about what to do, they were all skilled duellers but six to four was still a challenge since they did not know their opponent's skill level. If one were to run to get more Slytherins to help them it could take too long and they could miss their chance to do anything at all. Orion thought back to the prophecy the Divination Professor had told him. _“A_ _monster is calling for help in the dark! Blood will be spilled if nothing is done to help the creature to the light. It will rip and tear thr_ _o_ _u_ _gh_ _flesh if it does not find its way back home! It needs light!_ ”. He bit his lip in frustration if that meant what he thinks it meant they had to do something now.

He slowly backed away from the door and moved down the hall as he motioned his friends to follow. They all looked at him in confusion but followed him none the less. When they were around the corner Septimus spoke up. “What are you doing? We are not running away are we?” He looked darkly at Orion. He shook his head in response. “We need a distraction to get us into the room safely. We have no clue about how the room looks like so of we can get in without being spotted it’s our best bet.” Cyril looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “And how are we going to do that?” Orion grinned. “Peeves should still be close by, if we can persuade him to help us we can slip in unnoticed.” Zacharias looked at him dumbfounded. “You have officially lost your marbles. I bet we are using Cyril’s invisibility potions then to do the rest?” Orion nodded all they needed now was a little luck. From what he remembers of the encounter he had with Blackmoore and Peeves it did seem that the ghost had a certain interest in the girl. Like they were old acquaintances. It was a small chance but a chance he was taking either way. He took a deep breath. “Peeves!” Nothing but silence met them and Orion was about to try again when the familiar cackling was heard above them. “No need to be so loud boy! Running scared?” They all looked up and saw Peeves floating around the chandelier in lazy circles. “I’m making you a deal Peeves. We need help to get into that room unnoticed and you are going to help us. If you do I will let you scare as many students as you want on my nightly Prefect rounds. I won’t tell Professor Snape or the Baron. Deal?” For once the ghost was quiet as he floated slowly towards them on the ground. He stopped when he was eye level with Orion. Peeves studied him intensely, it felt like his soul itself was being looked at. Orion stood his ground and met Peeves eyes seriously. In the end, the ghost seemed satisfied and the usual wide grin was back in place. “Well well well! That is an offer I simply cannot refuse! It will be done posthaste it will!” He bowed in the air and floated in the direction of the tapestry. The boys quickly followed, Cyril took out the potion bottle from his cloak as they went and took a sip then passed it on. When they reached the door the potion had taken it’s effect and they could not be spotted anymore. “Zacharias you go in last and shut the door as quietly as you can, got it?” He felt a tap on his shoulder. The boys all took deep breaths as they saw Peeves fade through the wall. 

##  Inside

Orion opened the door as slowly as he could, the room was in chaos. Peeves were flying high up in the ceiling while singing mocking songs at all of them. Every time someone shouted at him to stop he sang even louder. They carefully slipped in the door and he could faintly hear the door being shut meaning that they were all inside. He took a few seconds to look around the room. It turns out the room was an old Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Why the old classroom was hidden behind a tapestry only the school itself could answer but it was fairly known to move rooms around at this point. The old tables and benches were at the back closest to the door and there was a stage up front. It didn’t look too different from the classroom they were currently using but this one did not have a teacher quarters at the back. So no staircase led to an office and just a slate wall at the back with some different decoration hanging on it. Some armour pieces, a couple of swords and a shield. Probably used back in the day but seemed redundant now. The Gryffindors were all standing on stage in a half circle with their backs to the door. Orion counted and found that there were seven of them with Blackmoore. Burns, MacCasfield and three girls and one boy he hadn’t seen before. He frowned, why hadn’t the spell picked up all of them he wondered. Then Orion registered that Blackmoore was sitting bound to a chair with what probably was the Funem Vinculum spell. The ropes binding her arms and legs were glowing a faint gold which means they were meant to tighten if you moved too much. He bit his lip to prevent cursing out loud. They slowly made their way closer to the stage as quiet as they could. Peeves were still singing loudly above them, if the ghost could see them or not he did not know but so far he was fulfilling his part of the deal perfectly. They had reached the end of the stage now and Orion could see Blackmoore more clearly. Her face looked untouched, of course, leave no visible evidence. The rest of her was another story, her uniform shirt was torn to shreds and you could clearly see her underwear underneath. Blood was seen running down from a few deeper cuts, some big bruises were already forming over her stomach and chest. He could hear Septimus swear softly behind him. Someone tapped him three times on his left shoulder meaning they had three minutes left before the effect of the potion was gone. “Thank you so much for listening to my lovely songs my dear Gryffindors! But alas I have to get going now, so much to do in death you now! Tata!” Peeves took a bow and floated up through the ceiling and disappeared. “Bloody hell Peeves is annoying! Where did he even come from?!” A girl Orion didn’t know spoke up first. “Fuck if I know, but finally we can get back to the problem at hand, eh?” MacCasfield said as he went over to Blackmoore and gripped her face so she was looking at him. “So little demon, what were you talking with the snake king about in the potion store room eh? You weren’t trying to rat us out were you?” As he talked he lifted her face up higher and higher so the chair was now only leaning on the two back legs. Blackmoore said nothing and only stared at him. “You choose silence hm? Well well… too bad for you I suppose. Vanessa, what do you wanna do to her?” He let go of Blackmoore’s face and the chair landed back on the floor with a loud bang. He turned to look at Burns while he drew his wand. She held up her hand to signal him to wait while she walked over to Blackmoore stopping right in front of her. Gone was that sugary smile from before, instead it was replaced with a cold-hearted smirk only an ice queen would be proud of. She bent down so she was on eye level with Blackmoore. “You know that if you cooperate it turns out for the better for you right? Do you really want to get beaten again?” Burns tilted her head to the side as she studied the brunette and waited for an answer. When none came she simply sighed. “Fine, as you wish. No one will hear you scream here anyway. Samuel dear you know what to do.” She walked over to a chair on the edge of the stage and sat down her legs crossed. The other three girls in the room followed and sat down next to her like their were going to watch a show. MacCasfield and another boy that Orion did not know took out both their wands. One of the others tapped Orion once on the shoulders, one minute left of the potion effect. 

“Last chance Blackmoore, you going to talk?” MacCasfield said as he aimed his wand at her. She lifted her head slowly and stared at him. Unexpectedly she started to grin. “Do your worst MacCasfield.” MacCasfield grinned back “As you wish. Sectumsempra!” The spell came out of the wand like a straight knife on it’s side and hit her square over the legs. Before she even could start screaming the other boy had fired out another one that hit her over the left arm. The scream she let out was shaking Orion’s magical core. His magic came to life like a raging storm and suddenly all the windows in the room shattered at once. The girls had been sitting under the windows and were screaming trying to cover themselves as glass rained down upon them. “That seems to be our cue boys!” As Zacharias yelled the potion wore off. The Gryffindors were not prepared for what happened and were taken by surprise first by the windows breaking then the rest of the boys to show up out of thin air. Zacharias was already taking the opportunity to fling spells at MacCasfield and the other boy. Cyril and Septimus were taking care of the girls sitting under the windows since they were too occupied with the glass breaking they didn’t have time to reach for their wands before they were all Stupified. Orion went straight for Blackmoore in the chair, he quickly dismantled the cursed ropes and they fell to the ground and vanished. “Blackmoore! Can you hear me?” He touched her face carefully and lifted it up so he could take a closer look at her. Golden eyes met his ice blue ones. She was smiling at him. “Loud and clear, Mr Prefect.” He jumped a little of the colour of her eyes, was it an after-effect from a spell that did it? It didn’t matter at his point, he didn’t have the time to think too much about it. A spell flew straight past his ear and sent pieces of the wall flying. He quickly turned around with his wand raised. The other Gryffindor boy was lying on the floor Stupified and Zacharias was duelling MacCasfield among the tables. “Give it up MacCasfield! It`s one against four now! You can`t win!” Orion flung a spell at him but the Gryffindor took cover behind a table. “HAH! Like I am going to be beaten by some snakes! Besides you are wide open King!” MacCasfield sent a spell right towards Orion`s face. He was about to counter it when it suddenly hit a shield mere centimetres from his face. "Orion! You alright?” Cyril and Septimus stepped to his side and threw up both their own shielding charms. Orion blinked and looked at the shield that was shining slightly in front of him. “Y… yes, thank you for that.” He looked over to the other two and they looked at him in confusion. “It wasn’t any of us mate.” Septimus looked at him then turned to look at Blackmoore. Orion did the same, she was sitting there with a smile on her face. But it was not the same smile he had seen earlier in the day. This was sinister and cold. “Can`t have something damage that pretty face of yours now can we King?” Her voice matched her smile, it sounded cold and hollow like someone was speaking through her. It sent chills down his spine. Suddenly he noticed something odd on the floor under her chair. At first, it looked like an ordinary shadow but then it started to move along the floor like a thick fog. It was rolling over the floor in waves slowly moving outward spreading through the room. The room also felt icy cold and he could see his own breath. He looked up at her again and notes that what seemed like smoke was rising up from her making her seem like she had just been put out from being set aflame. Suddenly they heard a scream, Orion quickly turned around and saw MacCasfield suspended in the air with the fog around his neck. He was clawing at it and struggling to get loose. “S…top… y...you bitch… Le…Let me... g…go!” He croaked out.

Orion quickly turned around to look at Blackmoore again, she was not paying the struggling boy any mind. She was studying Orion with her head tilted to one side like she was trying to figure out a difficult puzzle. Suddenly what Peeves had said came to mind: _“Don’t_ _regret it now and don’t show fear.”_ When their eyes met all Orion wanted to do was to run away but he managed to calm down and stand his ground. He could feel the edge of the stage right behind him with his feet and decided to take a chance. He pushed Cyril and Septimus off the stage so they both landed on the floor below him. “Silver what are you doing!?” Zacharias shouted from below him, he had moved closer and was helping the other two. Orion ignored him and took a few steps closer towards Blackmoore that was still sitting in the chair without breaking eye contact. “Well colour me impressed. You are not running away? Are you really that fearless? Or simply stupid?” She stood up from the chair with ease paying her wounds no mind. Orion’s instinct was screaming at him to run away, but his magic was keeping him standing still. All he could do was look at Blackmoore, no matter what he did he could not take his eyes off her. Her eyes were like liquid gold and it seemed like they were pulling him in. He could faintly hear MacCasfield cursing at her and what he thought was Cyril yelling at her to let him go before he choked to death. She reached over to him and touched his face softly for a second he could see her eyes changing from the gold to chocolate brown from before and back again. “Tell me, are you feeling your magic clawing at your skin? It wants me, doesn’t it? I can feel it too you know.” The voice was not as cold anymore and sounded softer. Suddenly someone pinched him in the shin which made him flinch in pain. “SILVER! Wake up already!” Zacharias's voice was booming in his ears and he suddenly took in his surroundings again. The black fog was covering the floor entirely now and the room was even colder than before. He turned around and saw his friends standing below him with scared and desperate looks on their faces. MacCasfield was still suspended in the air, but he was still fighting the fog that was keeping him up. He turned around again and looked at Blackmoore and steeled his expression. “Let him down Blackmoore.” She looked at him surprised that was changed out by anger. “After everything he did?! He was trying to kill me!” Orion walked closer to her and used his height advantage for what it was worth. “Now.” Sudden realisation showed on her face and he could hear a “thud” behind him followed by loud coughing sounds. He then could hear Burns scream MacCasfield name followed by footsteps. Orion did not turn around to look at what was going on, he kept his eyes focused on Blackmoore as her eyes slowly went back to the normal brown colour and the fog in the room seemed to be pulled back into her. The temperature also slowly went back to normal. Then her body seemed to have caught up with and she lost consciousness. Orion quickly caught her and lowered her to the ground carefully. He was holding her close when his friends came up to him. “What in Merlin’s name just happened?” Cyril asked slightly out of breath. “I don’t know” Orion’s throat felt like he had swallowed sand. He looked behind him now and saw none of the Gryffindors. “Where did they go?” “They all ran towards the door the second they could, probably halfway to their dorm rooms already,” Septimus answered. He put his hand on Orion’s shoulder. “You okay?” Orion didn’t know what he should answer so he simply nodded. Zacharias walked in front of him and bent down to look at Blackmoore. “We should take her to the Hospital Wing. She is bleeding quite badly.” Before the boys got to say anything else a voice could be heard from the door. “That will not be necessary Mr Zabini.” 

##  Demon

Snape was walking at a fast pace towards them with a schooled look on his face. Surprisingly a sombre looking Peeves was floating just behind him. “Professor! Blackmoore she...” Snape gave Septimus a look that told him to keep quiet. “Lay her on the floor, Mr Silver.” Orion did what he was asked immediately and carefully placed her flat on the floor. The Professor took out his wand and starting chanting an incantation while dragging his wand across the Sectumsepra wounds. The boys watched in awe when the wounds slowly started to close and turn into thin straight lines across her skin. Now that Orion looked at her up close he could see that she had multiple scars, some looked old and faded but others looked like they had recently happened. He could feel tears prickling behind his eyes and blinked them furiously away. When Snape finished with his spellwork he looked at the boys in turn and sighted. The man sounded tired, but at the same time, it looked like this was a mundane sight he was used to seeing. “Will the little one be alright?” Orion had never heard Peeves talk so quietly before. The ghost was floating just above their heads and was looking at Blackmoore with worry. If the dead could cry Orion was sure he would have. “She will be fine Peeves, now you know what to do.” Peeves nodded at the Professor and flew out the door. Snape looked at him go then turned his attention to the boys again. “Now you all will follow me. Quietly.” The last word was said harshly. Orion took off his robe and covered Blackmoore with it then picked her up carefully making sure her head was leaning on his shoulder. The Professor simply looked at him but said nothing and started to walk out of the classroom. The boys followed quickly behind him. 

They had avoided all of the more crowded hallways and corridors on their way to the Potion Master’s chambers. Even taken a few shortcuts that Orion didn’t know existed. It surprised him that they hadn’t even seen any students wandering around the halls but he figured that was probably thanks to Peeves. Seemed like the ghost had more respect for the Slytherin Head than he originally thought. As they entered the professor’s chambers he went over to the left side and opened a door. “Put her on the bed in here Mr Silver.” The personal space of the Professor was not at all how Orion had imagined. It was clad in not only the Slytherin green but also dark blues and purple. The living room part was furnished with soft looking chairs with a round tea table in the middle. The fireplace was crackling nicely to the right in the room. What did not surprise Orion was all the bookshelves and potion ingredients that were strewn everywhere. From ceiling to the floor there was not one place that didn’t have some sort of clutter. But everything looked neatly organised none the less. Orion went into the room to the left that Snape had opened and saw a big bed in the middle of the room. It was only lit by some simple candles that floated in the ceiling, much like they did in the Great Hall. A study desk was placed over to the left with a simple chair. Parchment, quills and ink bottles were cluttered all over. Orion stopped for a second when he saw a trunk similar to his own resting in the corner by the desk. “Mr Silver, today please.” He went over to the bed and carefully placed Blackmoore down. She hadn’t stirred at all on the way here thankfully. Now that he let her go he could feel his muscles ache and wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before. He looked at his Professor as he entered the room holding a tray of what looked like healing potions and bandages. “W… will she be alright, Sir?” The older man just looked at him for a second. “She will be fine. I have to be honest and say that this is not the first time this has happened. I am however curious about how you found her?” The rest of his friends had now entered the room and were watching quietly. “Professor Trelawney, Sir. She had a vision of it when I left Divination right before dinner.” “I got the younger students to ask around for Blackmoore during dinner Sir, that’s how we found her.” Septimus added. “I see. We will discuss this further, please wait out in the living room. I’ll call for some house elves to bring you some tea while you wait.” All the boys could do was nod and leave the room. The door softly shut behind them and the silence of the living room met them. 

A soft ‘pop’ was heard when an elf showed up in the middle of the room and put down a tea set on the table. “Please enjoy Sirs!” The elf bowed deeply and left again with a soft ‘pop’. Cyril sighed and sat down in a chair and grabbed a cup. “Might as well get comfortable while we wait.” Septimus sat down in the chair next to the auburn haired boy and took his own cup. Orion and Zacharias followed suit. They all sat in silence for several minutes just enjoying the warmth of the tea until Zacharias slammed his teacup down on the table making the other three jump in surprise. “Are we seriously not gonna talk about what just happened? I can’t just sit here and drink tea merrily while a person was almost killed in front of me you know! What the hell is she?!” Orion looked down in his teacup, just simple tea leaves was left in the bottom. He frowned slightly at it, was that a bunch of ants? If he remembers correctly from what he had learned in Divination a bunch of ants was a symbol of difficulties to come. He looked up at his friends. “I don’t know what she is but I do know that she was just trying to protect herself. In all honesty, MacCasfield should have seen it coming. He didn’t even hesitate before flinging that curse at her like he had no remorse about what he did. She saw a chance to get even and she took it. Can any of you really blame her for that?” His friends all looked at him with sombre looks on their faces. “I have to agree that I probably would have done the same if I was in her position. But that magic was… terrifying. How did she get that amount of power? She didn’t even use a wand did she?” Orion looked at Septimus with realisation. It was true, he had not seen her use a wand at all. He didn’t even know that she had one on her. Maybe the other students had taken it away from her before they started to render her useless? The door to the other room slowly opened then and Snape emerged looking even more tired than before. He sat down heavily in one of the chairs and poured himself a cup of tea. After a few sips, he looked up from his cup to address the boys waiting. “She is sleeping peacefully now. She will be fine after a few days rest. Now I am sure that you all are wondering what happened today. I will answer all the questions you have if able.” Orion looked at his Head of House with a scowl. “Sorry Sir but shouldn’t we tell you what happened?” The other boys nodded. “That is because I already know what happened Mr Silver. Peeves alerted me of the event after he was your distraction to get into the classroom. I had noticed that Miss Blackmoore and the other usual Gryffindors were absent from dinner and had a hunch that something was going on.” Orion clenched his fists. “This is not the first time this happens is it?” The Professor just looked at him with a face that told him that no, this was not the first time. “Sir, what is she? Is she possessed in some way?” Cyril asked.

Snape took a few more sips of his tea like he was buying himself some time to think. “Before I get to that I will have to let you know that if this information is used in any shape or form to hurt Miss Blackmoore in the future you all will be severely punished. Am I making myself clear?” The potion masters voice was cold and without mercy. Orion shivered a bit, then nodded. The other three looked at each other before they too nodded in agreement. Snape studied them for a few more seconds before he spoke again. “Your theory is not far from the truth Mr Thompson. But rather being possessed by a spirit or a demon she is partly the demon herself.” Zacharias started to laugh then. “Sorry Sir but that must be a joke. She is a demon?” Snape looked at him harshly. “I am by no means joking Mr Zabini and I said partly. She is still herself most of the time, but during great emotional distress, she turns into a version of herself that has more power and lot less human emotions. But I am getting ahead of myself. For you to understand all this you will have to know everything from the beginning.” He put down his teacup carefully on the table then leaned back in his chair again. “When Miss Blackmoore was three years old she was kidnapped by a fairly well-known child kidnapper nicknamed ‘The Vanisher’.” Septimus gasped. “He was the one who took children whom he thought had extraordinary abilities. He believed that the parents didn’t deserve their children.” Snape nodded. “He somehow foresaw the magical capabilities of these children that he took and Miss Blackmoore was one of them. Most of the children was returned to the parents after he had ‘trained’ them to control their magic. Miss Blackmoore was returned at the age of six but not to her parents. She was placed outside of the Ministry of Magic in London with a letter that included her name, age and that she had tremendous power. If she was not properly taken care of there would be dire consequences for the wizarding world.” Zacharias held up his hand to signal he wanted to ask something, Snape nodded at him. “But Sir, why didn’t the Ministry return her to her parents? I mean they had her name.” “The Vanisher insisted that her parents did not take her back and to avoid this gave her a new name. Of course, the Ministry tried to search for her parents but no one ever came to collect the girl so they were forced to send her to an orphanage. This became one of their greatest mistakes. Have any of you heard of ‘The Orphan Massacre’?” 

Orion’s eyes widened in shock. It had happened back in 1979, he was eight years old at the time and his parents had been reading the Prophet in terror that one morning. During the night there had been a massacre at an orphanage on the outskirts of London. There were theories that a magical creature of some kind had gotten in during the night and killed mercilessly. Only one child had survived the bloodshed. “Sir, you don’t mean?” Cyril’s voice was trembling a little bit. “Yes, Miss Blackmoore was the child that survived, because she was the one that did the killing. But I assure you that something of that scale has not happened since. She was a scared and angry child. The power she had could not be controlled and therefore it turned out the way it did. She is more in control now even though, like today, sometimes the demon shows it’s angry face. They are two different sides of the same coin. One is not worse than the other, I can assure you this. Miss Blackmoore herself can be a rude child…” The professor knitted his eyebrows together in annoyance as it seemed he remembered something. “...and the demon can be a nice creature if it wants to.” Orion remember back to the night before when he had seen the golden eyes, it must have been the demon he was talking to then. “So she has a personality disorder?” Septimus asked. Snape pondered the question for a little while before shaking his head then replying. “It is more the fact that she has demon blood flowing through her veins and it acts when its host is in dire need. This ‘awakening’ as some would call it, happened that night of the massacre. That was what her kidnapper figured out during the time she stayed with him. It goes without saying that this happening to wizard folk is extremely rare. I would believe that it is more common to be a veela than to have demon blood.” 

Orion’s thoughts were all over the place. Had it not been for the fact that it was his own Head of House telling him this then he would not believe a word of it. But the potion master never joked about anything, let alone something this serious. Zacharias spoke up then. “So the fact that she didn’t do anything back to bloody Gryffindorks is because she was fearing that she would actually kill them? That is why she never fought back ever?” His slammed his fist down on the table making the teacups shake. “That is totally insane! To take so much beating just to keep the rest of those fucking good for nothings happy. I would gladly hold that bloody whore Burns still for her so she could take her revenge on her any day!” The dark boy was shaking in rage at this point. Orion reached over and put his hand on the other boy’s shoulder. Septimus did the same on the other side as he turned to look at Snape again. “Why hasn’t the Headmaster done anything about the problem the Gryffindors seem to have with the bullying going on? He must know about it? I’ve also heard that Professor McGonagall ignored it when Miss Blackmoore went to her about it.” For the first time in his life, Orion saw his Head of House looking incredibly sad. It looked like the next thing he was going to say pained him more than anything else. “The Headmaster himself said that she was a lost cause. That she would never be able to control her powers and that she was only here because she had to by law. To the Gryffindors matron’s horror, she was sorted into her house which in her words made Miss Blackmoore her responsibility. Something she did not want. You noticed the trunk that stood in the room you place her in did you not Mr Silver?” Orion nodded slowly. “For the past six years, Miss Blackmoore has lived here in my personal chambers. I have been teaching her to control her powers and I have been treating her wounds. It was I that made the choice, she could not live in the dorms with the others. I deemed it too dangerous. Not for their sake, but for hers.” Snape looked sadly at the door to her room and sighed. “I would like to ask all of you a personal favour.” Orion was surprised that it was Zacharias that spoke up first. “Anything Sir.” Snape looked at them one at a time before asking. “I would like all of you to keep showing Miss Blackmoore the same amount of kindness that you showed her during today’s potion class. The girl desperately needs it. I would also add that I am proud to call you all my students so for that I give 20 points to Slytherin.” All the boys could do was look at their Head of House dumbfounded. Never had they heard Snape say such kind and friendly words. Before they got to say anything the usual strict mask the potion master had was back on. “It is getting late, you should all go back to your dorms for tonight. But I would like you all to come back here tomorrow after dinner, we have more to discuss. Miss Blackmoore should then be awake. I will explain everything to her beforehand.” He got up from his chair and opened the door for the boys and motioned for them to leave. Orion took a quick glance at the clock on the wall, it showed half-past nine. It was only thirty minutes left until curfew, luckily it was a quick walk to the common room from here. The boys all got out of their chairs and headed for the door. 

They were now standing outside in the chilly corridor of the dungeons. Orion shivered slightly and realised that his cloak was still in Blackmoore’s room. He had to use his spare for tomorrow he guessed. “That was a lot of information to go through.” Septimus broke the silence first. Orion looked at Cyril. “You have been mostly quiet all evening. What is on your mind?” Cyril looked at him.“ Like Ace said, it was a lot of information. Had it not been Snape that told us I would never have believed any of it. Could she really be that dangerous? She looked so brittle and lonely in class today. I mean I know we all saw the same thing up in that classroom but…” The boy sighed in defeat. “I don’t know guys, hopefully after a night of sleep everything will make more sense.” Orion patted his friend on the back. Orion looked a little further down the hall then and saw Zacharias kick the wall over and over in anger. Orion sighed. “Zacharias, stop it. You’ll hurt yourself.” Zacharias turned towards them all suddenly rage clear on his face. “We will do what Snape told us to right?! We will show her kindness from now on! At least I will and if any of you are mean to her I will hex you into next week!” The other three just stared at Zacharias. “What? You better do it you hear me!” Cyril started laughing then. “Zacharias you idiot. Of course, we are going to listen to the professor’s request. How could we not! I enjoyed talking to her today, I found her funny. I overheard what she said to you about your grades!” He grinned widely. Septimus joined in on the laughter. “Oh, Merlin that was the best comeback I’ve heard in a while. Even got you speechless!” He started to laugh harder. Watching his friends laugh made it hard for Orion not to join them, he had to put his hand over his mouth to try and hide his grin. Zacharias stomped the ground a few times with his foot, now more from embarrassment than anger. “Idiots! Come on, we need to go back already!” The dark haired boy started to march down the dungeon corridor while being followed by the other three’s laughter. 

##  The next day

All of the boys were walking quickly to Snape’s chambers after dinner the next day. The day had gone by incredibly slowly for them all. On top of it, all of it was Friday and a Hogsmeade weekend. The friends had all discussed the promise they had made with Snape the night before and had decided that taking Blackmoore with them to Hogsmeade was going to be the first step on the bridge to friendship. Orion took a deep breath before he knocked on the door to the potion master’s chamber. The door slowly opened for them and they all stepped into the room. On one of the chairs sat Blackmoore wrapped in the green blanket that Orion had seen that night. She had a book on her lap and a cup of tea was resting on the armrest of the chair. The girl looked better than what she did the night before. A bandage was barely visible over her shoulder where one of the curses had hit her. His eyes found hers quickly and was somewhat relieved that they were the chocolate brown that he has seen in class yesterday. Her hair was also tied up in a messy bun, locks of hair escaping at weird angles making her look much younger than she really was. Orion noted that four cups of tea were already waiting for them on the table, however, the potion master was nowhere to be seen. “Miss Blackmoore. You look better” His own voice sounded strained in his own ears and hoped that it didn’t come out that way. The girl looked up at them after turning the page and marking where she was. “Oh! Is it past dinner already?!” She looked at the clock over the fireplace and blushed. “I’m sorry! I was supposed to change before you arrived… I lost track of time while reading.” She blushed even harder and tried to make her hair more presentable, to no avail. Cyril moved to sit in a chair while laughing. “Don’t worry Miss, you look quite cute like that. No need to change. You are the patient here anyway, so best for you to be comfortable.” Zacharias made a gagging sound while he sat down in the chair opposite of Cyril. Cyril just rolled his eyes in response. Orion sat down in the chair closest to Blackmoore, Septimus sitting opposite him. “It’s true! No need for you to change. Anyhow were is the Professor?” Septimus asked. The girl crouched slightly while trying to hide her blushing before answering. “Apparently a second year exploded a cauldron in class so it was a big mess to clean up. He will be here as fast as possible though. In the meantime, we were to just sit and talk he said. Oh! Any pastries you like? I wasn’t sure so I didn’t order anything yet.” Orion had to giggle at how fast she was talking. She was clearly nervous and bad at hiding it. Somewhat this calmed his own nerves that he had, it was good to know that he wasn’t the only one. “Caramel cookies are the best for tea! No discussion!” Zacharias grinned at Blackmoore. She giggled at him softly and nodded. “Mips!” A small house elf showed up next to her. “Yes, miss! What can Mips do for the little miss?” Blackmoore blushed a little again. “Don’t call me little… Can you bring us some caramel cookies, please? Oh and some chocolate cake if there is any left.” The elf suddenly realised that the boys where there and her eyes seemed to grow twice the size. She beamed the biggest smile Orion had ever seen and elf make. “Misses friends?! Misses has gotten friends! What happy day!!” Mips then looked at Blackmoore and frowned. “Misses! You can’t dress like that in front of the friends! You have to look pretty, come! Mips will make you pretty!” She started to tug at Blackmoore’s sleeve for her to get out of the chair. “No, Mips they said it was fine.” Orion thought it was not possible for the girl to blush any harder if she tried. He had to giggle again at the sight. The house elf stood up as straight as she could and pointed a finger at Blackmoore then. “No Misses! It is unacceptable! Come now, come, come!” She started to pull at the girl’s sleeves even harder. Blackmoore looked at the boys pleadingly for help, Orion could not hold it in any longer and started to laugh louder. “It’s fine Misses, we will wait for you.” He smirked at her when she looked at him with a betrayed look. She gave up then and stood up from the chair and let the elf drag her into the room from yesterday. They could then see that she was dressed in plain grey pyjamas and was barefooted. How she didn’t freeze her feet off on the cold dungeon floor was a mystery to Orion. Maybe Snape had spelled the floor to be warmer because of her. “That elf must really like her a lot to react like that, huh?” Zacharias mused. “She obviously has not had anyone visit her seeing it is probably kept on the down low that she lives here after all.” Cyril added then smirked at Orion. “Now that I look at her with her hair up she looks rather pretty, wouldn’t you say King?” The other two looked between them curiously. Orion raised his eyebrow. “You point Thompson?” Cyril simply grinned and shook his head. 

The door to Blackmoore’s bedroom opened then. The boy's eyes widened when they saw her, it was like it was a different girl coming out. She was dressed in a plain long sleeved green dress with black stockings and black flat shoes. Her hair was now in a braid that hung across her shoulder and was that a little makeup? She was not meeting their eyes when she walked over to her chair and sat down again. A proud Mips then showed up with the pastries that they ordered and put them on the table. None of them said anything as the elf walked around the table and poured tea for them. When Mips was finished she stood proudly next to Blackmoore’s chair and bowed. “Misses friends! I hope you all will have a good time and call for Mips if you need anything!” She smiled even wider and disappeared with a soft ‘pop’. Blackmoore looked up at them then. “Mips forced me! I swear that elf is impossible. I tried to say that my uniform was enough but she dug this dress from out of my trunk…” Orion smiled at her. “You look, beautiful Misses. It seems like Mips really like you.” Orion was wrong, she actually managed to blush even harder. It took all his will power not to laugh. Zacharias cat called then winked at her. “You clean up good Blackmoore.” Cyril and Septimus nodded in agreement. She started to laugh then, a real bubbly laugh. Soon they all were laughing at what just happened while tears started to form in their eyes. 

A few minutes later they had all calmed down enough to start on their tea. Blackmoore took a few sips to calm down. “Mips is actually Seve… Snape’s personal house elf. As many of the Professor’s own house elves, she works in the kitchen during the school year. But when I moved in here Snape gave her the order to take care of me when he was not here. The elf had never taken care of a child before so she was excited to learn and I had never had a house elf before so we learned together. I guess that brought us closer in many ways. She was always nervous about me not having friends since I could not bring them here, I mean nobody is supposed to know that I live here. Mips doesn’t really understand that logic of course. She knows I am not normal like other girls though. Seeing you guys here really made her happy.” All the boys chose to ignore the fact that she had almost said The Professor’s first name. It came to no surprise to any of them that they were on first name basis after all these years. “She clearly loves you a lot. She almost sounded like a mom the way she talked to you.” Septimus smiled. “Yes, she read a lot of beginner books for parents from the library. I also know that she asked a lot of the older elves to help her. I guess that is where the ‘mother hen’ tone came from.” She giggled softly. “Anyway, Snape said that he told you everything yesterday night correct?” She looked at them with a sceptical look, like an animal approaching something unknown. Orion nodded as he spoke. “He told us everything. The incident in the orphanage to why you are being bullied. Also about the demon blood.” He looked at her seriously. “I promise that none of us shall tell anything about this to anyone else. I would gladly make an unbreakable vow if you want.” He eyes soften when she studied their faces one after the other. In the end, she shook her head. “No need. If that was your intention the rumours would already be flowing around the school and Snape had probably already brought me to safety somewhere else. Wh... what surprises me the most is that you are not scared… none of you.” Blackmoore stared at them with tears in her eyes. Orion’s heart broke then. The girl in front of them was broken in more ways than he had first thought of. She had been living in this room almost all their school life, away from the rest of the students. Terrified that someone would find out about her secret, she had endured enormous amount of pain. The loneliness must have been the worst part to endure. When thinking about all the times Orion and his friends had been sitting in the common room just playing chess or lazing around and at the same time, she had been sitting here completely alone made him regret not finding out all of this sooner. The regret crashed over him like a wave in a storm and his body moved on his own. He got up and took the short step over to her chair and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry that we didn’t figure out of this sooner. If I knew..” The girl froze like a statue but suddenly the words seemed to sink in and it broke her down bit by bit. What started as silent tears soon evolved into loud sobbing. Orion could feel his shirt getting wet from her tears but it only made him hold her tighter.

While he sat there crouched on the floor holding the sobbing girl something felt like it fell into place within him. His magic woke with a sudden force that it almost made him lose his breath. He could feel it struggling to stay calm like it wanted to be let out to help the girl. Blackmoore suddenly looked up at him with a curious look. Still teary eyed she reached down at took his hand in hers. Orion’s eyes widened, though faint he could see his magic crawling over their hands and surround Blackmoore with a soft glow. He looked up at her for answers but she was sitting with her eyes closed. “Wh… what's happening?” Zacharias whispered behind him. “It seems like Orion’s magic is forming a protecting shield around her?” Septimus whispered back. Cyril shushed them both. Blackmoore opened her eyes then and all the boys jumped a little in their chairs. Her eyes were a mix between the gold and the brown. Like a river made out of dark liquid amber. She smiled at Orion, not the cold smile he now expected from the gold eyes, but a warm one. “I… I can feel the demon blood in me calming down. Like the storm has finally passed. This is the first time this has happened, I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s wonderful.” Tears were streaming down her face again. This time they were of happiness and not of sadness. Orion looked at her and decided to take a chance. He softly put his hand on her cheek and wiped the tears away. Then he leaned in and put his forehead together with hers and closed his eyes. He could feel it now, the storm she talked about. It was trashing like a wild animal locked in a cage. Desperately wanting freedom. He tried to make it calm down, it seem to listen at first but then retaliated back tenfold. It felt like someone had punched him in the stomach and he had to pull away from the girl. Blackmoore must have also felt it because she let go of him while she gasped. They both breathed hard while they looked at each other. Mips then showed up with a big smile on her face, but it fell quickly when she saw Blackmoore on the floor gasping for breath. “Misses! What happened? You are not sick again are you?” The elf hurried over to her master and started to get her up and back into the chair to her best ability. Cyril was at Orion’s side and helped him into his own chair again. “They are fine Mips, but if you could get them some water please?” Cyril looked at the elf politely. She hesitated for a second before disappearing and reappearing almost immediately with two glasses of water. She hovered one in front of Blackmoore for her to take, and Cyril took the other one to give to Orion. After they had both drank the glasses and had calmed down again did they look at each other again. Blackmoore’s eyes had returned to her normal brown Orion noted. Mips was still fussing around Blackmoore and she had to reassure the elf that nothing was wrong and she could go back to the kitchen again. Mips frowned slightly but did as she was told. 

They were still sitting in silence when Snape entered the room. The Professor immediately understood that something was wrong when he saw the faces of his students. “What happened?” It sounded more like an order than a question. Zacharias was quick to tell him what had happened in his absence. He was sitting listening quietly to what the young adults told him while sipping slowly on some tea that Mips had brought him. “I see, this is very interesting. I would like to research this further if possible. If you two could keep being in physical contact with each other that would help.” Orion almost chocked on the cookie he was eating as he heard the Professor’s words. “S… Sir?” Snape just looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Simply holding her hand from time to time should be fine Mr Silver.” The older man smirked behind the cover of his teacup. Orion nodded meekly as a response. Zacharias then spoke up. “Oh! We forgot! Guys, we forgot to ask Blackmoore about that thing we planned.” Blackmoore looked confused at him. “Thing?” Zacharias grinned at her. “Yeah! It’s a Hogsmeade weekend this weekend you know? We wondered if you wanted to go with us tomorrow? After breakfast of course, and only if you are up for it.” The girl turned speechless and she stared at the boys. They all smiled back at her. Orion put his hand over hers and smiled at her. “We thought it would be nice to get out of the castle for a few hours.” She turned to look at Snape pleadingly. He studied her for what seemed like an eternity, in the end, the man seemed to come to an agreement with himself. “Fine. But you are all responsible for her. At the same time, you can go to the potion shop and get me some ingredients that I am missing. I’ll make a list.” He gave the boys an even stricter look than he gave them in class. It felt like being under the gaze of a protective father. 

##  Sleepless

Orion was laying in bed later that night trying to sleep but it was useless. No matter what way he twisted and turned he couldn’t get comfortable. The feeling from earlier still lingered slightly within him. He wondered how bad it actually felt for her when just a little bit was making him sleepless. Orion sighed and got out of bed. His friends were sleeping soundly by the sounds of soft breathing and slight snoring. He put on his cloak and put on his Prefect Badge just in case he found someone else out of bed or met a teacher. The castle was quiet as usual this late and only his own footsteps could be heard as he walked. Orion didn’t know how long he had walked but he found himself in the same hallway like the night he met Blackmoore for the first time. He smiled to himself. Who knew that meeting was going to turn into all this. He looked up at the windowsill that he had seen her back then and jumped. “Miss Blackmoore! What are you doing out of bed?” Blackmoore looked down at him with surprise. “Oh! King. Can’t sleep?” He shook his head. “Neither can I. To be honest I am a little nervous for tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Hogsmeade and to then go on a date with four guys at the same time! What a scandal.” She laughed at his dumbfounded expression. “How did you get up there anyway? You never told me the other time!” He crossed his arms and looked at her strictly. She laughed again. “I did tell you! It’s magic!” She gave him a Cheshire Cat smirk. He rolled his eyes. “Wow, go figure. What kind of spell did you use then?” Her smirk grew even wider. She pointed at him and made a swift movement with her hand and suddenly he was floating in the air. “What the?!” She laughed and motioned her hand towards the windowsill and placed him softly down next to her. Orion immediately clutched the windowsill like his life depended on it. “It’s Wingardium Leviosa of course. You are a wizard are you not?” Orion looked at her dumbfounded again. She started to laugh again. “Cat got your tongue, King?” Blackmoore’s eyes were full of humour and mischief, somehow it made Orion feel calm and warm inside. He smirked back at her. “I see now why you didn’t use it back in the storage room. You would probably have moved the entire shelf.” She snickered. “I actually did that once, Snape has still not forgiven me for it.” “I can imagine.” 

The pair was quiet for a few minutes, both lost in their own thoughts. They were sitting close but not touching, Orion looked down at their hands and realised if he moved his fingers just slightly he would be touching her hand. He swallowed his Slytherin pride and took his hand in hers. She looked up at him surprised but didn’t pull away. Orion smiled reassuring at her. “This feels better for you right?” The dark brown slowly morphed into the liquid amber from earlier as she nodded. None of them said anything and they continued to enjoy the silence. Orion jumped slightly when he felt Blackmoore put her head on his shoulder. He looked down at her with a smile on his face. Tomorrow was going to be a good day he thought to himself. 

##  Hogsmeade

The next morning all the boys stood patiently waiting by the big doors for Blackmoore to show up. That the Slytherin boys were going to Hogsmeade was nothing unusual on its own but for all of them to be waiting at the door was something the other students had never seen before. If the boys in question had dates they would always meet them down in the little town away from the more prying eyes. A lot of students walked past them and whispered excitedly, some had even stopped a little distance away to wait and see who they were waiting for. Rumours were already going around about who it could be. Orion was growing more nervous by the second that ticked by. He had been on dates before of course but none had really felt this nerve-racking. He shook his head in realisation to what he was thinking. This was not a date, all his friends would be here as well. It was an outing among friends that was all. “Hey! Princess over here!” Orion was pulled out of his thoughts by Zacharias yelling. He looked up and saw Blackmoore running towards them. “Good morning! What’s with the Princess?” She hit Zacharias playfully on the shoulder when she reached them. The dark boy just grinned at her. “Well seeing as we don’t have one you fit the part right?” The girl rolled her eyes then shrugged. “Wouldn’t I be the Prince then? Seeing as you are a Queen?” Zacharias smirked wider. “It’s settled then! My Prince!” He bowed before her and laughed. She laughed and knelt in response. “My Queen! It’s an honour” Septimus snickered at them. “Alright, you two we gotta get going yeah?” They all nodded at him. All of them started on the trek down to town. Cyril noticed that Blackmoore was wearing a skirt again. “Aren’t you cold Prince?” Seems the nickname had already stuck. “Not at all! I put a heating charm on my stockings before I left. All the girls do this you know? How else are we going to survive the winter?” Cyril thought about it for a second. “Yeah that does makes sense.” The continued to chat as they walked, Zacharias, Blackmoore and Cyril at the front while Septimus and Orion stayed a little further behind. “You saw all the looks that we got when Blackmoore met with us right King?” “Yes, they were hard to ignore. We have to keep our eyes peeled for trouble. Rumours are already flying around we can assume.” Septimus looked around and sure enough, students around them were staring. Luckily Cyril and Zacharias had positioned themselves on either side of Blackmoore so none could harm her on their way past them. He sighed and patted Orion on the shoulder. “Let’s try to enjoy the day at least, for her yeah?” 

When they reached the town they discussed where to go first. “We do have the list that the Professor gave us, so let’s do that first maybe? All of us probably need a refill of candy from Honeyduke’s and some school supplies from Scrivenshaft's quill store. Then end at The Three Broomsticks? How does that sound?” Cyril looked at the others for objections. “If it’s alright can we stop by Tomes and Scrolls as well?” Blackmoore looked at all of them hopefully. Zacharias made a snoring sound but laughed. “Only if we then go into Spintwitches Sporting Needs afterwards.” He crossed his arms and started at Blackmoore in challenge. She made a snoring sound to him as well but giggled in response. “I guess that is fair.” Cyril clapped his hands. “Alright, it’s decided! Let’s go to J. Pippin's Potions first then.” Cyril shot Orion a wicked smirk before he snaked his arm under Blackmoore’s so they now were linked. She looked up at him surprised at the action but he simply smiled sweetly at her and started to walk in the direction of the potion shop. Orion stood still for a second and watched them go. He could feel his magic reacting to someone else touching her, but there was something else too that he could not figure out. He quickly followed them to the store. 

Once inside of J. Pippin's Potions Blackmoore gave the note that the Professor had given her to the store clerk and she went behind to get the order. In the meantime the gang was just browsing around the store and staring at all the different ingredients and potions there was to buy. Orion was looking around the healing section when someone shouted his name. “Orion!” He knew that voice all to well and sighed. He turned around and sure enough there she was Eminence Loftwind, a Ravenclaw student that has appointed herself as his potion rival back in fourth year. Normally a very quiet girl, but if you got her talking about potion she would talk non stop. Her height also made her stand out somewhat, seeing as she was almost as tall as Orion himself. Not that that seemed to bother her the slightest. He had seen the girl wear high heels on more than one occasion. He smiled at her as she walked towards him. “Eminence, fancy seeing you here. Shopping supplies?” She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes yes! I have a very important question to ask you, seeing as we haven’t gotten potions together this month I hoped that I would see you here today. What do you think the essence of cranberries would do to a hair changing potion?” The blond boy blinked at her confused, then he noticed that the tall girl's hair was a dusty pink. “Ah, turn it pink I assume?” She looked confused back at him before suddenly realised. “Oh! No no this is actually from when I used lemons! Fascinating in it’s own right. But no the cranberries actually turned the hair dusty grey and even added curls! It is unbelievable would you not say?” The girl’s green eyes were shining like a thousand suns with excitement. Just then Blackmoore walked up to them looking puzzled. Orion had to stop himself from not snickering when he saw the height difference. Eminence was good over a head taller than her even with the shorter girl wearing heels.

It was like a button was pushed and Loftwind looked shyly at Orion. “Oh, I am sorry. I am disturbing you during a date correct?” Blackmoore was quick to shake her head. “No no! I am picking up some stuff for Professor Snape so we are just waiting for the clerk to get the order together. Silver and his friends were nice enough to accompany me. I am sorry too! I am Artemis Blackmoore, Gryffindor.” She held out her hand to shake. Loftwind smiled at her and took her hand. “Pleasure, I am Eminence Loftwind, Ravenclaw.” The girl's eyes suddenly widened like an owl. “Wait, did you say Blackmoore?” Orion got scared for a second that this might end badly as Blackmoore nodded at the other girl. But to his surprise, the Ravenclaw squeed happily like she had just met Merlin himself. “It’s an honour to meet you! I am so sorry to be rude but is the rumours true that you don’t use a wand? That you have some magical anomaly so none of them works for you? This is a really fascinating topic to me, I really want to research the ways of using different things instead of wands you see. Imagine if you could just wear a ring for example!” Some of the other people in the shop were staring at them now, the rest of the group had moved over to them now as well. Orion was frowning, he had never heard any of those rumours. Blackmoore looked slightly uncomfortable as Loftwind was still holding on to her hand. “Ah… um… Yes, it’s true actually.” The group of Slytherin boys looked surprised at her. “We didn’t see her use her wand at all now that I think about it” Septimus mumbled. Loftwind looked even more excited now than she did before. “That is incredible, your magic must be really beautiful than seeing it’s then in it’s natural form. I am hopeless at wandless magic you see. I would be honoured to see you do some magic sometime.” Blackmoore looked at her surprised. Loftwind must have realised that she was still holding onto the shorter girl and let go quickly. “Oh, I am so sorry again. That was really rude of me.” Orion was looking at Blackmoore and could see all the different emotions glide over her face in quick succession. He poked her on the cheek softly. “Hey Blackmoore you’re being rude, the girl complimented you just now.” The short girl looked at him in surprise then she turned Loftwind. “T… Thank you so much for the compliment Eminence. I don’t know if my magic can be called beautiful but it was nice of you to say. Your research ideas sound really fascinating. So how about I show you some magic and in exchange you tell me about it?” Loftwind looked like she was about to cry and just nodded. “That is a deal Artemis.” The girls started to laugh then and the boys just stared at them both. Zacharias shrugged and just said. “Girls heh?” 

After getting the ingredients that Snape wanted they said their goodbyes to Loftwind. The girls promised to meet in the near future to fulfil their promise to each other. Blackmoore looked in high spirit when they were on their way to Honeyduke’s. “You seem happy Prince” Zacharias patted the girl’s head as they walked. “Eminence seems like a really nice girl, she is the first one to actually talk to me that way. Besides you guys of course. She was so enthusiastic about potions too, now I know why Snape always looks forward to grading the Ravenclaws’ homework.” She giggled quietly. Septimus snickered. “If you think that was enthusiastic then you should see her in class! She has been rivalling Orion on the subject since the Ravenclaws started having potions with us back in fourth year. It’s been a close battle, I think Orion is winning for now though.” Blackmoore looked up at Orion with admiration. “That seems fun. You two seem very close because of it too. Even called her by her first name.” So she had heard that Orion thought. Cyril gave him a smirk over the girls head. “That is true, we have been calling you by your last name upon till now. How rude of us. Permission to call you Artemis?” Cyril linked their arms again as he smiled down at her. She blushed slightly but nodded. “Great! You can of course use our first names as well, right gentlemen?” “Of course you can, Ace works too,” Septimus added. “Hell no! I curse the name my mother gave me, so just call me Queen or Zabini.” Zacharias pointed a finger at her mock threateningly. Cyril leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Apparently Zacharias is the name of a past lover his mother had. She’s been married quite a number of times you see.” Orion had to call upon Merlin himself not to forcefully pull Cyril away from Blackmoore. The bad feeling he kept getting every time someone touched her was getting worse and for some reason, Cyril was being more touchy than he normally was. The girl looked at Zacharias and nodded in understanding. She looked at him then with a curious expression. He blushed slightly. “Orion or King is fine.” She smiled sweetly at him. 

After this, they went into the stores as planned and was soon sitting in the Three Broomsticks with a butterbeer each. Orion had managed to get a seat next to Blackmoore but unfortunately, Cyril sat down on the other side. It was ridiculous of him to be thinking anything bad of his friend. Cyril and him had known each other since second year and had never competed for anything. He wondered if the other boy was doing this on purpose to rile him up as backed up by the constant touching he did to Blackmoore. The girl did not seem to mind at all, but then again she was probably starved for human contact which made Orion wonder if Cyril’s touch had the same effect as his own. He got taken out of his own head with Blackmoore waving her hand in front of his face. “King? You alright? You haven’t said anything for the last ten minutes.” He looked around the table and saw everyone staring at him. “I’m fine, just tired I suppose.” He turned to look at her with a reassuring smile. “Did you enjoy yourself today?” Her dark hair flew around her face as she nodded enthusiastically, not unlike what Loftwind had done earlier in the day. “Yes! As I said before I have been here before to get ingredients for Snape but I have always gone alone so I usually just went straight back to the castle. I don’t know how to repay you. Oh, and I know you have all been on high alert the whole day. None of you are hiding it very well.” She grinned at them. “They usually never do anything outside of the castle, too many witnesses. So you can relax.” She laughed when she saw the boys visibly lowering their shoulders. Septimus spoke up then. “This is a little off topic but you did mention to Loftwind that you don’t have a wand. Is this actually true? I have to be honest when I say that it has crossed my mind that I’ve never seen you use one.” She looked at them knowingly and held her hand out to Septimus. “Your wand please?” He hesitated for a moment before taking it out from his cloak and giving it to her. The second she grabbed it sparks started to shoot out everywhere and the wand itself seemed to try and pry from her grip. She put it down on the table quickly and the wand immediately went back to normal. Septimus picked it up carefully and put it back into his cloak. “What in the world was that?” Orion asked. “Wands don’t tune with my core correctly because of the demon blood thing. Snape made up the magical anomaly thing to the teachers that don’t know the truth and I guess that some students have been spreading it around.” She whispered the last part to them. “Funny enough being a so called ‘Wandless’ is more common than you think actually. It does happen normally every few hundred years or so. Or so I’ve read in the library anyway.” She took a sip of her butterbeer and hummed in satisfaction. This girl was a never ending box of surprises Orion thought. 

It happened when they were on their way back to the castle, Orion snapped. He was walking behind Cyril and Blackmoore when Cyril had put his arm around her middle and pulled her closer to his body. Orion’s magic seemed to take over his body and mind as he forcefully wedged himself between them and pushed Cyril away with more strength than he meant to. Cyril ended up falling partly down a ditch on the side of the road. The boy moaned in pain from where he was trying to climb out, Septimus and Zacharias were quick to try and help him. “What the hell are you doing Orion?!” Zacharias yelled at him. Orion was holding Blackmoore tightly to his chest as he looked coldly at Cyril. “Stop. Touching. Her.” The sound of his own voice surprised him in a fleeting moment but was soon forgotten by Cyril starting to laugh. Everyone was looking at him confused. “Oh my if only you could see your own face now King. You rival even Snape with that cold stare.” Septimus pulled him up the last part and checked quickly if the boy was hurt. Orion frowned at him. “What are you talking about?” The other boy just smirked at him. “Artemis? Would you be a dear and explain?” Orion tightens the hold he had on her when he looked down to meet her apologetic expression. She carefully slipped her hands free and cupped his face with them. “I’m sorry Orion. It was Snape that told Cyril to do it. He wanted to see if your magic would react somehow to someone else touching me after what happened yesterday. He made us promise not to tell you. Septimus and Zabini didn’t know anything either. So don’t be mad at Cyril, please.” Her thumbs were gently stroking his cheeks and he could feel himself relax. He released his grip on her and looked at his friend. “I… You were lucky I only pushed you. I was tempted to throw some nasty hexes your way earlier.” Cyril put up his hands in defeat. “Sorry King, I promise I won't touch her like that ever again. But this did confirm Snape’s theory that only your magic resonates with hers. She never reacted the same way with my touch no matter what I did.” He looked to Blackmoore then and smiled. “She is yours mate.” Blackmoore blushed and tried to hide inside her scarf. The other boys just laughed at her. Zacharias put his hands behind his head and snickered. “Remind me never to try and steal a girl from King heh? Bloody hell that was scary.” “Yeah, I think I’ve never seen you so angry Orion.” Septimus looked thoughtful while he said it. “Let’s hope we never see it again huh? It’s getting dark, we better hurry back.” Cyril said as he started to walk up the hill again. Orion looked back at Blackmoore. “I’m sorry for how I behaved. I should have guessed that something was going on. But my magic just acted on it’s own.” She smiled at him and caressed his cheek again. “It’s fine. It was unfair of us to do it in the first place. But what Cyril said was true. I never felt the same calm when he touched me compared when you do.” They stood there smiling to each other for a second before they followed their friends up the hillside by side. 

##  A month later

A month passed faster than Orion had ever imagined. With Christmas soon upon them, they were swamped with homework and the constant reminders by the teachers of the big tests that were coming up. Most of their time was now spent studying in the library was Madam Pince kept and even stricter rule sett than usual. Because of the increase of students using the library everyday they were lucky they were even allowed to breathe. Orion felt a hand caressing his knee softly under the table. He looked at Blackmoore who was sitting next to him, her brows were knitted together in concentration. He peeked at the paper in front of her and saw that she was writing her Defence paper. He smiled softly to himself while going back to his potion homework. After the Potion Masters little experiment that he had played on them, they had been meeting in his office a couple of times a week. They went through a hoard of different experiments to figure out exactly how their cores connected. In the end, the Professor had come up with a theory that didn’t sound too far fetched. “It seems like the demon blood flowing through Miss Blackmoore has somehow gotten a taste for you magic Mr Silver. In other words, it is trying to slowly devour it. This is why she feels calm when you are making physical contact with each other, the demon is stating its hunger. But it is also lending it’s power to you in return. You have been able to do some wandless magic as of late I assume? Sadly if we let this continue as is you will surely lose most, if not all, of your magic before you reach the age of 30. “ Snape’s words still played on a loop in Orion’s head even a week later. Just thinking about losing his magic made him terrified. But somehow being separated from Blackmoore scared him even more. 

The night before had been different when they had arrived at the Professor’s office. He had sat them both down and looked at them with a face that he usually showed in detention. “I have a very serious matter to discuss with you both. I have found a solution to your problem.” Both of them had looked at the older man with relief but it quickly turned sour when the expression of the potion master did not change. “What have you found Sir?” Orion asked. Snape took a scroll out of his robe and handed it to Orion. When he opened it it was a complex diagram of runes, he could read some of it but most of the runes were unfamiliar to him. He heard Blackmoore gasp next to him. “Sir… a blood ritual?” Orion’s eyes widened as he looked at his Head of House. Snape nodded curtly. “Correct Miss Blackmoore. It is the only way that I have found that can contain your powers with Mr Silver’s without killing one of you. This is of course forbidden magic, for a good reason. This particular one was used often up to the late 1800th before the slave marked became forbidden in the muggle world. It was used as a ritual to mark humans with a brand to link them to their masters. They could give them punishments directly through the brand itself and it was useful to keep them in line seeing as they could not escape without being found immediately through the bond. I have managed to alter some parts of this of course but I am afraid that the ritual itself has to be done the same way as back then. Needless to say, it is not pleasant. I would like to have it done during the Christmas break when most of the staff and students are not here. So I will give you three days to decide about what you want to do. There is a lot of preparation to be done.” All Orion could do in this situation was stare at the older man. 

Orion had given up on his potion essay for now and turned to Blackmoore again. She was writing at a steady pace at her own paper. He looked around the library and caught some students staring at them but att his point he was used to it. After the Hogsmeade trip rumours about Blackmoore having used Imperius on the boys had started to spread. It was a ridiculous claim of course. Loftwind was one student that had denied the rumour altogether when asked about it. But being the curious type that she was she had come up to Orion one day and thrown a counter spell on him just to be sure. Of course, the girl was smart and had done so in the middle of a hallway on the ground floor. A lot of people had seen it and the rumour was slowly forgotten. The Ravenclaw and Blackmoore had gotten closer over that as well. The shorter girl had of course kept her promise and showed the researcher some of her wandless magic. He swore his ears had been ringing after all the delight screaming the Ravenclaw had done. In retaliation of the Imperious, Septimus had used his contacts to put out a rumour of their own. More like a simple threat really, if anyone dared lay a finger on Blackmoore they would meet a fate worse than death. It was of course directed to some specific persons but the rest of the school knowing did not hurt. 

His thoughts kept drifting back to the ritual. In the beginning, he had been certain that there could be some other way to do it. But the Professor had told him straight out that it wasn’t and that they had to make a decision. He could feel tapping on his shoulder then and turned to look at Blackmoore who was standing up next to him. “Orion? I am done so I’m going back to my room. Are you staying a bit longer?” The boy looked back to his unfinished potion essay and sighed. “No, I’m coming too. I can’t concentrate anyway.” They both packed their stuff into their bags and left the library as quietly as possible. Orion could feel Madam Pince’s gaze on his neck as they went past her. Finally, outside he let out a deep sight. “Merlin that woman is a tyrant these days.” Blackmoore snickered. “At least you delivered all your books on time. Poor Queen had to endure a thirty minutes lecture about tardiness from her last week for missing the time by ten minutes.” Orion grinned when he remember how tired Zacharias had looked when he came back to the common room that one evening. They walked in peaceful silence down to the dungeons and Blackmoore turned to look at him shyly when they were outside of the professor's chambers. “Would you like to come in for a minute? Snape has detention with some fourth years so he won’t be back for another two hours.” Orion blushed slightly as he nodded. Up until this point they had not really discussed their relationship. He had now come to terms with himself that he did like her romantically but he was unsure of the girl's feelings. They had done nothing but casual touching or the occasional holding hands when nobody saw them. Anything on a sexual matter Orion had steered away from in fear of it really was the demon that wanted it and not her. They sat in front of each other on Blackmoore’s bed as they had done many times before. Her dark eyes met his in determination. “You have been thinking about the ritual thing the whole day haven’t you?” She sounded like Snape when she asked it. At any other time, Orion would comment on it. He choose to nod instead. “I don’t care what you think but we are doing it. I’ve decided.” He looked at her with widened eyes. “So I don’t get any say in this? Is that what you are saying?” He could feel himself grow angry and had to loosen his tie. “No. You don’t.” She had crossed her arms over her chest and her eyes were stone cold. “That is ridiculous! I am not hurting you like that, I refuse! We will find another way.” He stepped off the bed and started to walk towards the door. “I don’t want to kill you!” Orion froze on the spot and turned around slowly. Tears were dripping down the sides of her face. “I… I don’t want to kill you… anyone. ever. again.” She said it through gritted teeth, her legs was pulled up under her and she looked like a small child. Orion’s anger disappeared like dust in the wind and went back to the bed. He sat down next to her and wrapped her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I was not thinking clearly.” She looked up at him with wet eyes. “You will do it?” Orion nodded. “Yes, I’ll do this. But not for myself, but for you.” He hugged her tightly then as the girl started sobbing. 

After dinner the next day they told Snape of their decision to go through with the ritual. The Professor had smiled at them both and said that it probably was for the best. He would make the preparations ready to do it during Christmas break as planned. Finally, the night had arrived. Orion was sweating where he stood in Snape’s chambers. The Potion Master had modified Blackmoore ’ s bedroom for the ritual. The room was spelled bigger and the bed had been moved against one of the far walls. In the middle of the room, there were chalk lines on the floor in intricate patterns and candles seemingly in random places, but Orion knew that nothing in here was random. If looked at from above you could see that the pattern was made upon essentially three circles inside of each other and the further into the middle the smaller the circles got. Blackmoore and himself were now standing inside the outer circle facing each other. They had been instructed by Snape of all the steps that they had to take before they started. There were three:

The first step was simple; A drop of blood from each of them were put in a vial that Snape mixed some other ingredients into. He refused to tell them what kind. Then they got a cup each and drank it at the same time then had to wait exactly two minutes before they could proceed to the next circle.

The second step was more intricate. They both had to say an incantation to each other. One as the role of Master and for the role as the Slave. Orion was acting as the Master seeing he was the one that had to keep Blackmoore in control of her powers. This also prevented the demon in her from feeding on his magic as the brand would stop it from having a direct link. It was like he was putting a lid on a box as Snape had explained it. Another part of it meant that Orion would know exactly know where the girl was at all times over an unknown distance. Snape had modified this part so that it went both ways for fairness sake. He had also explained because of this they would most likely be able to feel each other's emotions as well. This was going to act as their voiced contract. When that was done they proceeded to the next and final circle. They now stood directly in front of each other.

This was the step that Orion had been dreading for a week, Snape had told them that Blackmoore needed to be branded to seal the ritual properly. But he had waited to tell them that it was Orion that had to do it to the week before they were going to do it. He was also the one that had to make the seal itself, a mark that showed everyone who she belonged to. Of course, today that meant nothing but Snape had insisted that Orion had to make it. However, where it was to be placed was Snape decision. He had deduced that it had to be over her heart. Blackmoore was a powerful witch on her own accord, but together with the demon fully unleashed she could very easily have taken on the whole first Wizard war on her own and come out the victor. If the brand was positioned over her heart, her life itself, the demon would be completely sealed and therefore under her own control. Of course, this meant that step three became more painful for the girl. She had, of course, agreed to it without a second thought and had even joked that it could not be worse than take a couple of  Sectumsepras to the body. Orion took a deep breath and steadied himself. They were now on the last step. “Are you ready?” Snape was talking to both of them. Blackmoore nodded without looking away from Orion, and she started to button-down her shirt. He swallowed hard, they could not move from the circle before the branding was done. Depending on how long it took for the brand to set it could be minutes or even hours of complete agony for the girl. The only thing he could do during this was stand there and hopelessly watch. He took a deep breath, they had gotten this far and there was no way out now. He tightened his grip on the wand in hand and pointed to her chest. He looked her in the eye one more time. She nodded at him.

He took another deep breath and said the spell: “ **Sanguinis** **Domini** ”. At first, nothing happened and Orion thought maybe he had said it wrong when suddenly Blackmoore clutched her chest and started to scream. The scream was sending chills into his very soul, it was the demon screaming as well as her. Blood was starting to show under her fingers as she collapsed to the floor. She was thrashing around on the ground screaming while clawing at her chest making the bleeding even worse. As time passed the screams lessened and turned into heavy breathing and moans of pain then silence. Orion didn’t know when he had closed his eyes but he opened them to look down at her. She was lying still on the floor and it seemed that she wasn’t breathing. He looked desperately to Snape. “Don’t move!” The Professor ordered. “Patience. The worst should be over.” His own Professor sounded unsure, which put Orion even more on edge. But he did as he was told and did not move. Minutes went by without nothing happening. Suddenly the girl drew a deep breath and started to cough like she had been drowning. She pulled herself slowly into a sitting position and was still breathing hard while she looked at Orion then Snape. “I… I think it stopped.” Her voice was hoarse when she talked. She showed them her chest, the mark was ugly and red but it had stopped bleeding and was already healing itself. Orion reached out a hand for her to take and carefully got her into a standing position. She looked at Orion and smiled tiredly. “I take back what I said earlier. The I would rather take the Sectumsepras instead. Merlin that hurt…” Orion just starred at her owlishly before he burst out laughing. It was a madman’s laugh, but he did not care. All the nerves that had build up over the last week left his body in one go, they had done the ritual and they both lived through it. They never had to fear death from each other again. He hugged the girl tightly to his chest and he swore to himself that he was never going to let go. The Potion Master coughed slightly from the edge of the circle. “Artemis, how are you feeling?” It was the first time Orion had heard him use her first name. “I feel like I’ve had thousands of knives thrown through my chest but other than that I’m fine I think.” The older man nodded in understanding. “I suggest the best course of action now is that both of you get some sleep. I have prepared a room for you on the seventh floor where you should be left alone.” Orion looked at him confused. “Sir?” “We are not taking any chances after coming this far Mister Silver, hurry now.” Orion looked at Blackmoore. “Can you walk?” She nodded and started to follow the Professor. After a few hallways, he noted that she was having a difficult time keeping up the pace and decided to carry her instead. She mumbled some insults at him but leaned into him nonetheless. 

When Snape stopped in front of what seemed like a empty wall did Orion understand what room it was that the potion master had prepared. The Room of Requirement. He had heard of it before but he had never been inside. He watched in awe as a simple door appeared in front of them. Snape opened it and motioned for them to go in. Once inside Orion put Blackmoore down on the floor. “Everything you need is present. I would like you not to come out again until morning. The room will give you food if you are in need of it. If you require assistance use the floo powder on top of the fireplace to contact me. Understood?” They both nodded. After a few seconds, Snape sighed and walked over to Blackmoore and pulled her into a hug. He whispered something into her ear and she nodded. Orion looked away at that moment, he felt like he was watching something forbidden. Snape coughed and wished them good night and gently closed the door behind them. 

The room was simple but still warm and inviting. There was a queen-size bed in the back of the room and a door to the left which he assumed was the bathroom. To the right were a sofa and two chairs similar to what Snape had in his living area. He noticed his own trunk at the foot of the bed next to what had to be Blackmoore’s own. He watched her as she went over to the trunk and took out a sleeping gown and walked carefully over to the door on the left. He had almost sat down on one of the sofas before he heard the girl call for him. “Wow… Look at his Orion!” He went after her inside the door and his eyes grew wide. It was a giant bathtub inside, like the one found in the prefects’ bath. Blackmoore’s eyes were sparkling as the water starting pouring from the taps and a lavender scent filled the room. “W… well it’s only fair that you clean up first, so I’ll be waiting outside. Take your time.” Before Orion could make it out the door the girl had grabbed a hold of his wrist. “No, stay.” He studied her carefully. “What?” “Stay. Please.” The girl's face showed only determination. Orion could only nod in response. She smiled at him and started to take off the bloodied clothes. He could not take his eyes off her even if he wanted to. It seemed like the girl did not mind at all him staring as she kept shedding one garment after the other. He took the time studying her. Her body was riddled with scars some small others bigger. But what drew his attention the most was the brand. His brand. The raven stared back at him almost like it knew that he was it’s master. He approached her slowly like she was a scared animal. She stood still but her breath quickened the closer he came. Orion put his hand on the branding and blinked away the tears in his eyes. Everything he wanted to say got stuck in his throat but it seemed that she understood him nonetheless. She cupped her hands around his face as she had done many times, but it was different somehow. Their eyes met and he could see specks of gold floating in the dark pool of chocolate.

Orion let go of the barrier he had given himself as a sudden urge crashed over him like a wave and before he knew it he was kissing the girl before with a force that surprised him. It was like she was the air he needed to breathe and he could not let go. She was responding to him like that he, in turn, was her own lifeline. At some point, his clothes vanished as he walked them backwards into the water. It was soothing their skin and washing away the last of their restraint. There was no need to hold back any more.

They woke up the next morning tangled together under the bedsheets. Orion had not felt so calm and satisfied in a long time. He smiled as he brushed some hair out of the sleeping girls face. The girl stirred and opened her eyes slowly. Orion was relieved to see that her eyes had not changed. It was proof of what they had done the night before was real. He kissed the top of her head softly. “Good morning.” She yawned loudly and sat up only to fall straight back down again. “Mornin’, what did you do to me yesterday? I feel like I’ve been run over by a hippogriff.” Orion smirked at her and rolled on top of her. “Don’t tell me you have forgotten? Shall I remind you perhaps?” She hit him playfully at the back of the head. “I have not forgotten. No reminding needed.” He smiled softly down at her and kissed her softly. “We should get dressed. Snape is probably coming for us soon.” She sighed and quickly kissed him again. Orion rolled off her and got out of the bed. The minute his feet touched the floor he regretted it. They both got into a more presentable state right on time for Snape to arrive. The potion master had obviously been worrying for them the whole night judging by the circles under the man’s eyes. But he seemed to relax when he saw that they both were alright. He cast some healing spells over Blackmoore until he was satisfied that nothing out of the ordinary had happened overnight. Orion was then sent back to the Slytherin dorm as they now needed to have some time apart to figure out the bonds restrictions. The boy was surprised to find his three friends waiting for him. “He returns!” “Orion!” “About time mate.” None of them had been told any details of the ritual beforehand and they were now excitedly waiting for Orion to tell them. During his tale, he left out the nightly activities that the pair had done. Every time one of his friends mentioned that night later he simply played dumb with them. It was simply too much fun. He was the King of Slytherin after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what did you think? Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> The first chapters of the next part is now up! Enjoy.

**Author's Note:**

> So what did you think? Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> I am just posting the prologue for now so I hope you enjoyed reading it! We are currently working on the next part of the story so maybe it will be uploaded some time in the future, so do tell me if you want more!  
> Edit: The first chapters are now up!   
> Also do tell me if I need to change the warnings!


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